


What a Wreck

by loveandwar007



Category: Monster High
Genre: Adventure, Drama, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Peril, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-10-07
Packaged: 2017-12-28 04:02:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 40,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/987422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveandwar007/pseuds/loveandwar007
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A dream Scaribbean Islands vacation turns nightmarish (and not in a good way) when a shipwreck leaves Frankie, Clawdeen, Heath, Jackson, Clawd and Abbey washed up on a deserted island. With their remaining friends determined to come to their rescue, both natural and supernatural elements come into play to put the bonds between them all to the ultimate test in a race against time to save the castaways before it's too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Well, it’s not exactly the Titanic, but it’ll do I suppose,” Cleo de Nile yawned, pulling her sunglasses back down over her eyes in a bored fashion. She looked over her shoulder and saw her boyfriend Deuce Gorgon dragging her makeup trunk along the dock leading to their boat, looking visibly tired. “Deuce sweetie, you don’t have to carry that for me.”

Deuce sighed in what was unmistakably relief, “Thanks Cleo.”

“That’s what the servants are for.” Cleo gestured matter-of-factly beside her, where about twenty of her personal handmaidens and servants were loading her and her friends’ things onto one of two sailboats. The week long trip to the Scaribbean Islands that they and ten of their beast friends were taking could have easily fit them all together onto the cruise ship her father had arranged. But unbeknownst to the mummified Egyptian princess, Deuce and the boys had other plans. “So remind me why we’re sailing these... _things_ to the Islands again?”

“Remember that sailing camp I went to earlier this summer?”

“Vaguely,” Cleo muttered, picking at her cuticles absentmindedly.

“Well, Clawd’s got a bet going that I’m not as skilled at the helm as I say I am.” Deuce might have been rolling his eyes, but due to his constant need to wear sunglasses so he didn’t accidently turn someone to stone, Cleo couldn’t exactly tell. “Wouldn’t be so bad if he hadn’t gotten Heath and Jackson in on it too, and now they’re _all_ betting against me. They think between the three of them, they can race me to the Islands in the other boat and beat me there.”

“So you denied my father’s _beyond_ generous offer of a private cruise ship that could have carried the dozen of us together because of a childish bet to save your pride?”

“Basically.” He looked at her expecting a lecture or even a very public argument right there on the dock, but to his surprise Cleo smiled, “Deucey, I _have_ taught you well.”

“You’re not mad? I mean like you said, it’s not the Titanic--”

“Oh, it’s got charm in its own primitive way,” Cleo waved off. “Besides, we have a luxury hotel suite waiting for us at the Scaribbean when we get there. I can survive a day on a rickety old boat.”

“Awesome,” Deuce grinned, kissing her on the cheek. “And don’t worry, I’ll win. Sailing’s kinda in my blood, you know.”

“I don’t think just because the boatman of the underworld is a close friend of your mother’s means that sailing is in your _blood_ exactly,” Cleo pointed out. Deuce opened his mouth to respond when a loud howl pierced the early afternoon sky and two tall figures began running towards the sailboat docked about fifty feet from theirs. They whirled around to see Clawd Wolf, the source of the howl, along with Heath Burns tossing their luggage aboard and leaping into the boat excitedly.

“You’re goin’ down, Deuce-ster!” shouted Heath, giving the gorgon a mocking thumbs-down while Clawd continued to howl and beat the helm like it was the horn on a car steering wheel.

“And this is why I sail in _that_ boat,” a deep female voice with a thick Russian accent said as Cleo looked to see Abbey Bominable, along with Clawdeen Wolf and Draculaura dragging their things behind them. “Make sure Heath not do something stupid. He know nothing about sailing, he just want to be in on bet.”

“Please, _please_ let me go in your boat, I’m _begging_ you,” Clawdeen pleaded, grabbing Cleo by the arm and squeezing it hard. “I’ll do anything, I’ll design you a whole new wardrobe and name it after you when I make it big--”

“After my things and Cleo’s are stored below, I doubt there will be room for yours,” Draculaura said sheepishly, her own trunks being wheeled aboard Deuce’s boat by her father’s valet. Averting her eyes from the blinding sun, the vegan vampire opened her laced pink and black parasol and twirled it with a flourish.

“Then switch with me, he’s _your_ boyfriend!” Clawdeen said desperately, unable to even think about the amount of stupidity she was going to have to put up with on the ride to the Islands.

“But you're his sister,” Draculaura patted her hand sympathetically. “And he was adamant about you being in the same boat as him. The pack has to stick together.”

“ _Why?_ ” Clawdeen moaned, collapsing dramatically against Abbey’s shoulder. A yellow taxi pulled up in front of their dock as more passengers for Deuce’s boat arrived.

“Welcome aboard _R.M.S. Gorgon_ , ladies!” Deuce announced with his arms spread open as Lagoona Blue, Operetta and Ghoulia Yelps spilled out of the taxi like a clown car, their luggage popping out after them.

“Well ain’t that just the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen,” Operetta said smoothly, eyeing the boat as she picked herself and her luggage up from the ground, including what looked like a guitar case. "I know a smidge about sailin' boats, Deuce. Daddy and I haunted riverboats when I was knee-high, so if ya’ll need some assistance, I’d be oh too glad to help.”

“I’m sure he knows what he’s doing,” Cleo said a bit more territorially than she intended to sound, and Operetta shrugged as she turned on her heel to store her things on board. “Let’s get a move on, Ghoulia, I think Deuce is trying to cheat by getting a head start!” Cleo smiled slyly as Heath and Clawd roared in angry disapproval, the boys beginning to spew colorful words across the two docks at each other. Ghoulia moaned back, giving her a Look as she rolled her suitcase up to the boat.

“She’s not _encouraging_ them, mate, just havin’ a little fun,” Lagoona replied as she walked up beside them, chuckling. “Easy to poke fun when them boys act as competitive as sharks in a tank.”

“Is this everyone then?” Cleo asked Deuce, the servants closing up the luggage compartments on the so-called _R.M.S Gorgon_.

“On our end,” Deuce nodded, watching Clawdeen frantically texting on her iCoffin on the other dock. He smiled, “Maybe we _should_ get a head start…”

“I was joking,” Cleo swatted him on the arm as they heard Clawdeen let out an exasperated growl, “What is _taking_ them so long?!”

“You let up that anchor, you’re a dead man, Gorgon!” Clawd shouted to Deuce, “You hear me?!”

“Like I even _need_ a head start!” Deuce yelled back, pounding his puffed chest. Cleo was beginning to understand Clawdeen’s utter embarrassment just as a white minivan sped up in front of the second boat’s dock. Clawd and Heath cheered on its arrival as a high-spirited voice cried from the backseat window, “This is so _voltage!_ ”

“You think everything’s ‘voltage’, now hurry up!” Cleo called with an annoyed roll of her eyes, climbing aboard the first boat and seating herself at the helm beside Deuce.

“I texted you like ten times!” Clawdeen waved her phone in the air as Frankie Stein and Jackson Jekyll sprinted up the dock with their rolling trunks, the latter dumping his bag lazily inside the boat as he ran to join the other guys.

“Sorry!” Frankie called over whatever obnoxious sounds were coming out of the boys’ mouths now. “I got so excited I accidentally fried my phone-- _again_.”

“Is just a boat, Frankie,” Abbey said, helping her carry what looked like her shoe trunk on board.

“It’s the Scaribbean _Islands!_ ” Frankie exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “‘Teen Scream’ says it is _the_ hot spot for the summer and I’m actually getting to go there myself!”

“Okay okay, don’t set the boat on fire,” Clawdeen said, wary of Frankie’s sparking bolts.

“That go for you too, flaming hair!” Abbey shouted up to Heath, who blew her a kiss from the helm.

“Cast off, Deuce!” Clawd shouted, “And we’ll show you how it’s really done!”

“C’mon, guys,” Jackson said calmly, holding up his hands as if trying to make peace. Then he grinned, "They'll be plenty of time to brag _after_ we win.”

“Right on, cuz!” Heath fist bumped Jackson as Clawd steered the boat away from the dock once the anchor had been lifted.

“Hey Clawd!” Deuce shouted, spinning the helm on his boat with ease. “Looks like I _am_ getting a head start!”

“Yeah, how’s that?!”

“‘Cause you’re going the wrong way!” Abbey, Clawdeen and Frankie were flung across the boat as Clawd made a sudden sharp turn to follow Deuce. “Sorry!” he called.

“You’re gonna be sorry!” Clawdeen yelled back, pushing her thick curly hair out of her face as Abbey and Frankie sighed. It was going to be a _long_ journey.

“Don’t sweat it, ghouls,” Deuce called down to the boat deck where Cleo and the others were spread out. “Those dudes have _no_ idea what they’re in for.”

 

~

“That’s lovely, Operetta,” Lagoona smiled as she and the other ghouls clapped politely, the phantom standing to bow with her guitar in hand. “What’s it called?”

“Untitled as of now,” Operetta replied, swinging the shoulder strap off from around her back and setting the guitar back in its case. “I got a bit of inspiration on deck here and just started strummin’ to the beat of my heart. There’s just somethin’ about feelin’ a boat rock beneath my feet that gets me thinkin’ of my childhood down south.”

“I can understand that,” Lagoona said, reaching down over the side of the boat to run her hand along the salty water below, the wind sending a burst of sea spray in her face.

“Deuce, I think you can slow down a bit!” Cleo called up to the helm, the boat’s speed apparent from the amount of spray rising up on deck. “Clawd’s at least a quarter mile behind us now!”

“Oh no, don’t stop,” Lagoona breathed, closing her eyes in bliss as she lay back in her deck chair. It had been too long since she had been near the sea, what with her river monster boyfriend Gil’s apprehension coupled with attending an inland school like Monster High. It felt awful to think about, but part of her was almost glad that a cross lake swimming competition had kept him from going with them to the Scaribbean. Now she could just enjoy the atmosphere without his complaints nagging her in the back of her mind. Not that she found dating him a chore, she loved him of course. It just became exhausting at times, what with his horridly prejudiced parents and all, and she needed a break.

“Oh Lagoona,” sighed Draculaura happily as she knelt beside her deck chair, using her parasol to cover the sun. “I can only imagine what it must be like to live out here, watching the sea stretch to the horizon. It’s so beautiful.”

“Just sailin’ on it makes me a bit homesick,” Lagoona sat up to face her. “I might have to jump out and swim a few laps soon or I’ll go bonkers.” Looking past Draculaura’s shoulder, she squinted a bit at the dark patches of sky several miles ahead of them. “Is...that the direction we’re headin’ in?”

“I think so,” Draculaura said, turning to see where Lagoona was looking. “Why?”

“I don’t like the look of those clouds,” Lagoona shook her head slightly. Ghoulia moaned as she came up behind her, pointing slowly out to the same greyish clouds. “It _is_ gettin’ close to hurricane season,” Lagoona agreed with the informative zombie who had been checking the weather moments ago on her laptop.

“Cleo!” Draculaura called to the sun-basking princess, “You might want to tell Deuce to steer clear of the east!”

“What?” Cleo asked, sitting up and lifting her sunglasses from her eyes. “But that’s the direction the Islands are in. There’s no going around it.”

“But look!” She pointed out to the sea and Cleo spun around to see the small patch of looming clouds.

“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Deuce said coolly. “They look harmless and it’s not a very big section of sky. The worst we’ll get is downpoured on.”

“It’s possible,” Lagoona said softly. But when it came to the ocean, the daughter of the sea monster had instincts. And her instincts were telling her that heading into that darker portion of the horizon was not the best idea.

 

~

“You’re letting Deuce get ahead of us _why?_ ” Heath asked Clawd as the alpha wolf steered the boat so it was directly behind Deuce’s. About a quarter mile behind, that is.

“Strategy, Heath,” Jackson said, nodding his approval. “It’s all in the strategy…”

“Yep,” Clawd confirmed, “I make Deuce _think_ he’s winning so he’ll slow up, then we pull up alongside him and wave before we sail on ahead to the Scaribbean.” He rolled his eyes, “You really don’t know anything about sailing, do you Heath?”

“Like you guys _do?_ ” Heath snorted in an attempt to cover up his, in fact, complete ignorance of boats.

“My folks take us out on a boat every summer,” Clawd said, swinging the helm around one-handed as if it were no big deal, “My dad taught me everything I know.”

“Ten summers at Camp Chippewa weren’t lost on me,” Jackson leaned back against the pole, folding his arms over his chest. “I even won a sailing race once. Pretty sure I can do it again.”

“But--!”

“Face it, Burns,” Clawd cut him off, his eyes focused on the sea and horizon line ahead. “The only reason you wanted in was so you could show off in front of Abbey.”

“Okay, I won’t deny that’s _part_ of it,” Heath admitted, waving his hands for emphasis. He peered down over the railing of the helm platform and looked for where Abbey, Frankie and Clawdeen were hanging around together on deck. Abbey leaned against the side of the boat, her colorfully streaked hair blowing around her face and caught up in the sea spray, a silver short maxi dress hugging her curves. The other two were flanked on either side of her and all of them were grinning. “What do you think they’re talking about down there?”

“Makeup?” Clawd suggested, “Clothes? Shoes? That awful new fantasy movie Draculaura dragged me to see last week?”

“Ugh, even the book it was based on was awful,” Jackson began, then stopped as his face reddened. As Heath would say, his geek card was showing. Luckily, Heath wasn’t paying attention. His eyes were still fixed on Abbey, unintentionally standing as if she were posing for a summer clothes catalog.

“Think they’re talking about us?”

Clawd guffawed out loud, and Clawdeen turned her head sharply upward to face him. “You’re awfully happy for someone who’s losing your stupid race!” she called, pointing out to sea where Deuce’s boat sailed on ahead of them.

“All in the strategy, sis!” Clawd called Jackson’s words down to her, fisting his hand in premature triumph. “We got this!”

“You’re _gonna_ get it when we dock in the Islands,” Clawdeen shot back through gritted teeth, slashing a clawed hand through the air in his direction.

“Yeah they’re definitely not talking about you, Heath,” Clawd said quickly, a bit intimidated by the thought of his sister’s wrath. He grinned widely, his wolf chops showing. “Someday, when you’re older, you’ll learn that you don’t have to _try_ to impress the right ghoul.” He finally took his eyes off the sea to look at Heath, “Abbey’s the right ghoul. Just give it some time.”

“Listen to Papa Wolf, Heath,” Jackson voice quivered as he tried not to laugh, “He knows all.”

“I have a very solid relationship with the ghoul of my dreams,” Clawd leaned his head back, taking in the cool ocean breeze. “I think I kinda know what I’m talking about.”

“You’re one to laugh, Jekyll,” Heath blurted out under his breath before covered his mouth in fake “ _did I say that out loud?_ ” shock.

“What do you mean?” Jackson shifted around uncomfortably.

“C’mon.” Clawd’s knowing gaze shifted slowly over to the half normie. “You and Frankie?” As if on cue, her high tinkling laugh floated upward towards where they sat and the blush creeped back into Jackson’s face.

“We’re just--!” He trailed off as Heath’s knowing look matched Clawd’s, then sighed defeatedly. “Okay, it’s called ‘trial dating’, I guess. I don’t know, she read it in a magazine or something, but she wants to mostly be more like friends with, like, a little dating on the side.”

“Wow,” Heath snorted so hard smoke came out of his nostrils. “There’s ‘taking it slow’ and then there’s...you guys.”

“Look, right now I’m just following her lead. _Both_ of me is.” Jackson glanced back down to where she stood, poised against the ship’s side in a blue skirt and black and white scoop neck T-shirt, flipping her long hair away from her neck bolts. “I don’t want me and Holt to screw this up again.”

“Guys, hold up a sec,” Clawd held up a hand, his face becoming suddenly serious. “You see that out there?” Heath and Jackson tore their eyes away from the ghouls and followed his gaze out to the horizon, where a dark patch of clouds had begun to form.

“Man, that doesn’t look good…” Heath squeaked out. “But at least it doesn’t look very big."

“From this perspective,” Jackson said warily. “Get a little closer and it could be pretty nasty.” _And Deuce is sailing right into it_, all three of their minds completed at the same time. Revving up the motor, they heard the ghouls gasp and yelp below as Clawd launched the boat forward determinedly.

“What are you doing up there?!” Frankie shouted to them in alarm, hanging onto the side of the boat.

“Calling a timeout!” Clawd shouted back, speeding to catch up with Deuce.

 

~

Deuce looked behind him at the sound of a boat motor growing louder and louder, his lips curling angrily. _Those sneaky little cheaters_ , he thought as he waited for them to catch up so he could have a few words with them. A few words that might not make him look very gentlemanly to all these lady monsters on board.

“Clawd!” Draculaura called cheerfully, rushing to the side of the boat and waving as the boat helmed by her boyfriend, Heath and Jackson drew closer. “You finally caught up!”

“Deuce, we gotta get around those greyish clouds up ahead!” Clawd called to the helm leader of the boat beside his. At that point, Clawdeen, Abbey and Frankie had noticed the overcast sky as well and were glancing wide-eyed at each other.

“What, you guys afraid of a little rain?” Deuce laughed, palming the helm closer towards Clawd.

“Deuce, I think you’re takin’ this way too lightly!” Lagoona called as she climbed the stairs to the platform where he stood.

“Even I think this is a bad move,” Heath added. “And this is _me_ talking!”

“Good, he finally learning,” Abbey said bluntly. The increase in the speed of the two boats brought them even closer to the clouded sky, where the wind picked up suddenly and the disturbed ocean beneath began to rock both of them threateningly.

“Deuce, get us out of here,” Cleo stood facing the sky, her latte-colored face paling to an ashen hue.

“I’m trying--”

“Get us out of here now!” she shouted, her hands poised as if threatening to grab the helm from him by force. A wave splashed over the side of their boat dousing Ghoulia and Operetta completely, and Deuce knew he had underestimated the weather conditions horribly.

“Okay...okay look, I can see it clearing up ahead!” the gorgon called to the boys in the other boat, gesturing much further out to where the dark clouds broke up to reveal clear blue again. “It looks about maybe three miles ahead! We can ride this out, we only need to make it three miles!”

“I’m trusting you, dude!” Clawd pointed at Deuce in confidence, then looked back on their boat to where Draculaura stood watching him in concern, hanging onto the side for dear unlife. He put two fingers to his lips and sent a kiss her way, which she mimed catching in the air. “Let’s do this.”

“You girls need to get below,” Jackson ordered, he and Heath wobbling their way down to the boat deck as the first rumble of thunder sounded over them, almost like a warning from Mother Nature herself.

“No!”

“Are you crazy?!”

“We’re not leaving!”

“This is kinda _serious_ in case you hadn’t noticed!” Heath shouted over their protests, waving up at the sky above them.

“Then _you_ are one who is needing to get below,” Abbey poked him sternly in the chest, then grabbed his shoulders for support as the waves jolted them sharply. “I help Clawd steer. Will be needing strong muscles."

“Abbey!” Heath tried again, but she either didn’t hear him or chose not to hear him as she took the steps three at a time to the helm platform. She and Clawd gasped and they heard Cleo scream from the other boat as forked lightning lit up the sky.

“Frankie,” Jackson said almost warningly, watching her bicolored eyes brighten as the world around them grew darker.

“Jackson, it’s _lightning_ ,” Frankie emphasized as if he’d forgotten who he was talking to, brushing her hair aside as it whipped violently into her face and mouth.

“I don’t care about the lightning, I care about the rain and the wind and even the slightest possibility of you getting tossed overboard,” Jackson exhaled in one breath, searching her face for any change in her resolve.

“I’m helping,” Frankie said in finality, pushing past him to get to the helm as he helplessly watched her go. When Frankie wore her “on a mission” face, you just didn’t stop her.

“Deuce, you don’t wanna try sailing against the storm,” Lagoona advised her captain, “Just let the waves push you forward.”

“It ain’t foolproof, but it’s a better option than puttin’ up a fight,” Operetta agreed, having reached the platform herself. “Let me help out.” She glanced over at Cleo as if asking for permission, to which the princess nodded as if to say “ _it’s all yours._ ”

“Alright, here’s the plan,” Clawd called over the thunder growing more frequent by the minute. “Abbey, you’re gonna help steer. Frankie, I need you up high to keep any lightning from striking the boat. Jackson and Clawdeen, you each grab a sail and keep us on course heading east. Heath...don’t do anything dumb. Everyone got it?”

“Question!” Heath raised his hand as if he were in class. “What qualifies as ‘dumb’?!” No one had time to come up with a sarcastic comeback as the waves rocked the boat dangerously to the left. Jackson and Clawdeen hung onto the sails with every ounce of strength they had, coughing and spluttering up the wave of saltwater that had splashed over the side. Frankie raised her arm to the sky as a bolt of lightning shot towards Deuce’s boat, absorbing its potential damage before it struck.

“Thanks, honey bun!” Operetta called across the boats, waving in gratitude.

“Don’t mention it!” Frankie beamed back, then gasped as she heard Clawdeen scream. Another bolt had streaked through the sky and met its target, the bow of their own boat, and only a few feet from where the female werewolf stood clutching her sail in one hand and the boat side in the other. “Clawd I’m doing my best, but I can’t be in ten places at once!” Clawd said a colorful word under his breath that Frankie had only ever heard her dad use when an experiment went wrong.

“Clawd!” came the surprisingly faint cry of Draculaura, and Clawd whipped around to see that they were getting further away from Deuce and the others. “Abbey, get me back over there!” he ordered, the yeti girl grabbing hold of the helm as they both struggled to steer against the strong winds working to divide the two groups.

“Deuce, get me as close as you can!” Lagoona yelled over her shoulder as she ran to gather up a coil of spare rope she noticed on the floor of the platform. Grabbing one end, she began to knot it tightly to the metal railing on the boat side.

“And what exactly do you plan on doing?!” Cleo asked despite having already figured out the answer, which was not the one she wanted to hear.

“Gonna swim this rope over and tie them off so we don’t get separated!” Lagoona explained. Ghoulia groaned loudly and shook her head, taking Lagoona’s arm and hanging on tight. “I’ll be okay, mate, I’ve swam in plenty of storms before. This is easily a 5 on a 10-pointer.” Weak enough to not warrant wall-high waves, still strong enough to do some serious damage. And from what she and Ghoulia could make out, Clawd’s boat was in a much worse position than theirs.

“Lagoona!” voices cried out from both sides as the saltwater monster dove gracefully into the raging waters below. Surfacing moments later, she paddled at marathon speed closer and closer to the opposite boat where Clawdeen and Jackson ran to meet her. Thunder rumbled through the sky as the heavens opened up at last, sending a torrent of rain whipping down on them all like sharp needles.

“Almost there, just a little closer!” Clawdeen called out, reaching as far as she could over the side to grab Lagoona’s rope. Abbey had let go of the helm to help Frankie who had screamed once the rain started, causing her to spark out of control.

“Heath, grab that tarp over there!” Jackson called to his cousin, who obeyed and flew up the stairs to throw the plastic covering over Frankie.

“Deuce!” Lagoona cried out desperately from the water, still falling short of getting the rope into Clawdeen’s hands.

“I can’t get any closer!” Deuce called back in a cracked voice, Operetta adding “The wind’s too strong!” as they both grunted and strained to steer the helm. Lagoona looked back at Clawdeen with panic in her eyes just before Clawdeen felt a pair of arms grab her around the waist and hoist her head first over the side of the boat.

“Jackson, what--?!” she cried out in surprise.

“I’ve got you, just get to Lagoona! She’s our only way out of this!” Jackson shouted, using all of his upper body strength to keep from letting Clawdeen fall overboard.

“Here come waves!” Abbey roared ominously from above, and Clawdeen panted as she reached out towards Lagoona who had pulled the rope as far as she could…

What happened next could barely be described by an outsider, as several events occurred so closely and rapidly to each other that they were almost indiscernible. An outraged “ _What do you think you’re doing?!_ ” exploded from Clawd’s mouth as he watched Jackson lift his sister, her head and torso completely hanging over the edge and she scrambled to get to Lagoona’s rope. But he barely finished saying that as the waves Abbey had pointed out came hard and fast to claim their victims.

“No! _Deuce, no!_ ” Lagoona flung herself in vain towards the others as she felt herself being pulled back, ocean water and equally salty tears mingling across her face.

“We have to pull out!” Deuce cried out as Cleo clung to his back, her nails digging into his triceps as she buried her face in the back of his shirt. “We _have to_ , Lagoona.”

And at that moment, a single wall-high wave made its appearance. It was only one, but that was all it took. Jackson threw Clawdeen back onto the deck floor and she desperately clawed at the wooden boards, leaving long nail trails as she, Jackson and Heath felt themselves rolling and sliding across the floor, the waves having carried the boat what felt like several miles away. Deuce’s boat was no longer anywhere to be seen. As the wave wall came up around them, Clawd threw himself back from the helm and flung his arms out to shield Abbey and Frankie, his eyes squeezed shut.

“ _No!_ ” Cleo screamed despairingly, hanging onto Deuce as he shouted the names of those in the other group, slinging forward as if he were going to jump into the water himself. The rain was letting up where the winds had blown them, the clouds dispersed, the three-mile storm was reaching its end, and the Scaribbean Islands were now only mere hours away.

And after watching helplessly as a wave swallowed their companion boat whole, not a single one of them cared.

 

~

Identifying her surroundings was nearly impossible once all the seawater drained from her system and Frankie returned to consciousness. The grey light from the cloudy sky barely made her want to open her eyes, so she tried to figure it out through her other senses.

 _Sand_ , she thought as she dug her nails into the surface she was laying on, _Wet sand_. She had stopped sparking which meant she must be drying off in the warm humid air. As she lifted her eyelids, she saw her thick streaks of black and white hair soaked and plastered against her face, seaweed coiled tightly around her stitched mint green arms. This wasn’t a dream. She wouldn’t have felt this gross if it were a dream. Something was holding her in place from the waist down, making her unable to move, so she lifted her head and shoulders as high as she could and looked around.

One thing was for sure. This was not the Scaribbean Islands.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Dropping her head back to the ground, her cheek pressed against the wet sand, Frankie struggled to remember what had happened and what had led to her lying on her stomach washed up on some random beach. There was the storm, the boat carrying her and five of her friends toppling over, a giant wall of water, and...she noted the silence aside from the waves lapping at her feet. _Am I alone?_

“Clawdeen!” She exhaled slowly at the sound of Clawd’s voice, wildly calling in panic. _“Clawdeen!”_ His pawed feet padded quickly along the sand several feet away from her.

“I’m right here!” came the voice of his sister, grunting slightly. Frankie tried to sit up so she could help her ghoulfriend, but something large and unyielding still had her legs pinned. “Got about a zillion splinters, but I’m here.”

“Are you okay?” Clawd panted, his voice cracking under stress and possibly from emotion. “Anything hurt?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Clawd quit hugging, you’re choking me!” Clawdeen said in a constricted voice, freeing herself from her older brother’s grip. “Where’s everyone else?”

“For the record, let it be known that for once I did, in fact, _not_ do anything dumb!”

“Congratulations. What you want, medal?”

“Glad you’re okay too, Abbey.”

Frankie pushed herself up with her arms, then cried out sharply in pain as something scraped hard against her right leg, something pointy. But she didn't care, she needed to reach her friends.

“Frankie!” Abbey’s feet padded closer to where she lay as she felt someone else appear on her other side. “I lift this up. Heath, you pull her out.” A loud creaking of splintered wood was heard as Abbey pushed what looked like boat debris off of Frankie and freed her legs.

“Can you stand?” Heath asked, wrapping an arm around her waist. Clinging to his shoulders, Frankie managed to pull herself up onto her feet. “Yeah…” she responded breathlessly before coughing up some seawater she’d gulped down. “What happened?”

“We’ve been shipwrecked,” Clawd said dismally as Clawdeen ran to hug Frankie, her purple leopard print halter top torn so badly it exposed her bathing suit underneath. Frankie didn’t know how beaten up she herself looked, and from the looks of the others she probably didn’t _want_ to know. But miraculously, it seemed all of her stitching had remained intact. As she examined the coastline of wherever they landed, she was shocked to discover almost nothing but wreckage as far as the eye could see. And nothing that resembled their luggage or trunks had washed up, leaving Frankie to believe they were lost at sea. Her clothes, her makeup, her shoes, her sewing kit to stitch her limbs together, and most importantly her travel generator to charge herself.

“Man, I thought this stuff only happened in the movies,” Heath said quietly as they all glanced around at their unfamiliar surroundings. “But at least we’re all okay!”

“Wait.” Frankie wrenched herself away from Clawdeen, stumbling up the coast looking left to right. All of a sudden her generator was no longer the most important thing missing. “Where’s Jackson?”

“Oh yeah.” Heath’s grin slipped.

“How could you forget your own cousin?!” Clawd slapped him in the back of the head.

“You forgot about him, too!” Heath smacked him back as Frankie darted forward with renewed strength.

“Jackson?!” she called out, searching the shore as she ran along it. Nothing but wooden debris. “Jackson!” Fear seized her heart as she stared out at the ocean. No...no he couldn’t have… _“Jackson!”_ she screamed out to the rolling waves.

“Over here!” Abbey called out, where she could see a pale arm sticking out from under what looked like half the remains of the boat’s stern. She and Clawd used all their strength to lift the wreckage and toss it into the sea, revealing Jackson lying very still underneath it.

“Jackson, bro, can you hear me?” Clawd asked as calmly as he could, flipping Jackson onto his back and slapping him lightly in the face. His face being blue and grey, pretty cut up and bruised with the left lens of his square glasses cracked.

“He’s not breathing,” Clawdeen said anxiously as Frankie flung herself on her knees beside Jackson’s body. Feeling his wrist, pressing her ear to his chest, she did everything she could immediately think of with no results. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her mouth, feeling Clawdeen wrap an arm around her shoulders as her mind worked a mile a minute.

“Oh man,” Heath grabbed at his hair as his voice shook, “Oh man oh man oh man…” And then Frankie’s mind stopped spinning, her head cleared, and she focused on the one image she was trying to work up: The instructions for CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation posted on the walls in every one of her father’s laboratories.  

Pushing Clawd aside, she pinched Jackson’s nose and pried his lips apart. Placing her mouth over his, she could practically feel everyone else holding their breath as she blew hers into Jackson’s lungs. Sitting up, she saw that he still wasn’t moving. _No…_ Plunging her head back down to try again, she was met with a faceful of seawater shooting up into her face.

“Oh my ghoul, that scared me for a second,” Clawdeen breathed out, her hands pressed against her chest as Jackson heaved and coughed violently, a fountain of water spurting from his mouth.

“Don’t do that, man, you had us going there” Clawd chuckled in immense relief, ruffling Jackson's damp hair as Frankie threw herself on top of him, her arms wrapped around his neck. Only now did she notice that her entire body was trembling.

“I thought you--”

“I’m okay,” Jackson said hoarsely, rubbing her back soothingly as he pulled her even closer. “It’s all okay.” He looked up to see Heath grinning and wagging his eyebrows at them and mouthed _“Shut up”_ to him.

“Not to break up the mood, but this is anything _but_ okay,” Clawdeen announced, getting to her feet and brushing the sand off her knees. “Did anyone’s stuff wash up? Anyone’s iCoffin survive?”

“How you say, ‘negative’," Abbey tried her newly learned slang as Heath shook his head.

“Everything’s gone,” Frankie said in a tight voice as she and Jackson sat up, wiping the corners of her eyes. She cleared her throat and tried to put on a brave face, “Did anyone see what happened to the others? In Deuce’s boat?”

“The last thing I remember is them getting blown in the direction of the Islands,” Clawd said, standing as well. He looked out onto the ocean’s horizon, shielding his eyes with his hand even though it was hardly sunny. “It was clearing up that way, so I bet they’re fine.”

“Lucky them,” Heath grumbled, but Abbey lay a hand on his arm. “Am betting they are worried in the sick way about us,” she said softly.

“Draculaura…” Clawd breathed, letting his hand drop and his eyes close. “She’s probably a wreck.”

“And we have no way to contact them,” Jackson ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “No phones, no texting, no electronics at all.” His head shot up, “No _headphones._ ” He looked quickly over at Frankie, “So much for Holt and I dividing our time with you.”

“ _Urgh_ , if only I could’ve grabbed that rope from Lagoona!” Clawdeen growled to the sky, stomping her heeled sandal into the sand. “Now they’re safe and sound at the Scaribbean while we’re lost in the middle of who knows how far off course!”

“And you know Cleo’ll head straight for the luxury suite before she even _thinks_ about what could’ve happened to us,” Heath rolled his eyes, folding his arms across his chest.

“Alright listen,” Frankie finally got to her feet, her face hardened confidently. “If there’s anything I know for sure, it’s that none of them will rest until they’ve found us. We saw the direction they blew in, so that means they must have seen where we blew as well. If we just hang around on the shore here, they’ll be able to see us when they come back this way.” She looked around at each of them, “Because they _will_ come back this way.”

What Frankie and the others couldn’t see was the way the shores of their island shimmered against the vast ocean's horizon from afar, its form wavering like a distant mirage for a few moments before disappearing completely from view.

 

~

“Welcome, young monsters, to the world famous Scaribbean Islands!”

“Yeah yeah, thanks,” Operetta muttered distractedly, waving her hand in the dock greeter’s face as she strolled off the boat deck and onto the dock, where several good-looking shirtless male monsters attempted to don her and the rest of the group behind her in traditional Scaribbean leis. Like her, the rest of her group walked right past them all, making their way to the coast of the mainland. And like her, they were all understandably distracted from taking in the beauty of the tropical atmosphere before them.

“Miss de Nile, there seems to be some sort of mistake,” the mild-mannered gargoyle checking them in at the dock said, holding out a hand to stop Cleo from going any further. “Your reservation states that we were to expect _two_ boats upon your arrival--”

 _“I know you were expecting two boats,”_ Cleo hissed bitterly in his face, causing him to back up a few steps. “And once you get out of my way, I will do everything in my power to rectify that mistake.”

“Cleo,” Deuce ran to catch up with her as she stomped along the crowded beach with purpose, the rays of the sunset gleaming off the metallic gold streaks in her hair. “Cleo, you need to relax. Getting mad at everyone isn’t going to make us find them any faster.”

“I’m not angry Deuce, I’m stressed,” Cleo responded as she kept walking, not even bothering to turn around. She didn’t want to elaborate any further than that. She didn’t want to whirl around and scream in his face that six of their friends had disappeared in the middle of the ocean, that none of this would have happened if they had taken the cruise ship, and that it was because of his ridiculous race with the boys that they weren’t all safe together on the Islands. Cleo did _not_ want to say anything to her boyfriend that she would regret later. So she just kept walking.

“We’re gonna go talk to the coast guard,” Lagoona panted as she jogged to keep up with Cleo and Deuce, shouting back to the other ghouls over her shoulder. “Ghoulia, you got your scooter off board?” The zombie moaned back in response, swinging a leg over her red mobile transport and revving up the motor as she settled into the seat.

“Go to the hotel and check us into the suites,” Cleo ordered Ghoulia, who had strapped all of their luggage to a trailer on the back of her scooter. “Meet us back here immediately after everything’s been cleared. We’ll be sending out the coast guard to search the area where we got caught in the storm.” As Ghoulia sped off inland towards the hotel, Draculaura walked briskly past where Operetta and Lagoona were whispering quietly to each other and caught up with Cleo and Deuce.

“What are you thinking then?” the vampire asked in a small voice. “That they’re floating around in the middle of the ocean somewhere? Or there’s some small chance that the boat is still in one piece?”

“There’s no way the boat survived, you saw the size of that wave,” Deuce hung back a bit to walk beside Draculaura as Cleo reached the coast guard stand and began demanding assistance. He did a quick head count to himself, “Clawd and Jackson are fast swimmers, I know that. Abbey’s probably able to keep up, she’s strong. The others though…”

“I can’t even think about it too much,” Draculaura shook her head, wringing her parasol anxiously in her hands. “But I can’t assume the worst either. I mean, whatever happened...at least they’re all together. Right?”

Deuce sighed, “I didn’t see anywhere they could have landed.” He looked down at her, watching her eyes widen. “Did you?”

Lagoona couldn’t help overhearing her friends voicing their fears aloud and wanted to say something. But the truth was that she shared the exact same worries as the rest of them, and none of them could provide any source of comfort or morale without having a surefire way of knowing if the others had indeed ridden out the storm.

As they waited for Cleo to make arrangements for a search with the coast guard, the sea monster sat down in the sand and buried her face in her finned, scaly hands. Even though the others had tried to convince her otherwise, Lagoona still blamed herself for being unable to help the group in Clawd’s boat. She had underestimated the storm nearly as badly as Deuce had with the strength of the waves crashing against her, the raw and red remains in her palms from dragging the rope towards Clawdeen’s outstretched hands, which was the absolute last she saw of those in the second boat. She shuddered as a chill that had nothing to do with the weather ran up her spine. The sea showed no mercy towards anyone, man or monster, when riled up by the elements. Not even towards Lagoona’s closest friends, who had done nothing to deserve getting caught up in its wrath.

She looked up as Operetta placed a hand on her shoulder, gripping it firmly. “Are you gonna tell her what’cha told me?” the southern belle asked, nodding towards Cleo who was stalking back over to them, hair flying wildly behind her. Lagoona nodded back at her silently.

“Well, that’s that I suppose,” Cleo announced to the group who had gathered around her. “They’re going to do the best they can to search the area where we got separated.”

“See?” Deuce began, “I knew we’d be able to--”

“Unfortunately, their best is _clearly_ not going to be good enough,” Cleo’s glossed golden lips pursed in annoyance. “Half of them are zombies, for Ra’s sake, and their captain only has one eye!”

“He’s a _Cyclops_ , Cleo!” Deuce said exasperatedly. "He can see just as well as any of us.”

“The point is that we can’t just sit here and do nothing while they head out on a wild goose chase,” Cleo went on, tightening the wrappings on her arms determinedly. “I know it’s unlikely, but has anyone tried calling the others?”

“I tried Clawd, Clawdeen and Frankie,” Draculaura said, flicking through her iCoffin screen nervously. “They all went directly to voicemail.”

“Frankie doesn’t have a phone. She fried it, remember?” Deuce hit a contact entry and put his own iCoffin to his ear, “I’m gonna try Jackson again.”

“Ya’ll are wastin’ yer time!” Operetta blurted out, throwing her hands in the air. “We don’t even know if _they_ made it out alright! Do ya seriously think their _phones_ stood a chance?!” As they all stood gaping at her outburst, the phantom gestured down to Lagoona still sitting in the sand. “Now listen up ‘cause Lagoona’s got somethin’ to wager with ya’ll.”

“The good news is...there’s a way we can know for sure if the area we lost them in is searched thoroughly,” Lagoona said slowly as she stood up from the sand, and Cleo raised her perfectly waxed eyebrows in sudden interest. “My parents. They know every inch of every ocean covering the earth.”

“Of course!” Draculaura exhaled in relief, grabbing Lagoona’s hands excitedly. “Lagoona, that’s brilliant!”

“Except your parents are all the way out in the Great Barrier Reef, hundreds and _hundreds_ of miles from here,” Cleo’s face fell as quickly as it had perked up.

“And that’s the bad news,” Lagoona went on, looking around at them. “They don’t have cell phones or computers or any sure way to contact them like most of your parents do. And even if I _could_ reach them, like you said Cleo, it would take them at least three days to get here even at top speed.”

Cleo put her hands together as if in prayer and pressed her fingertips to her lips, contemplating their options as quickly as she could. Every moment they remained inactive was a moment wasted, a moment in which Frankie, Abbey, Heath, Jackson and the Wolf siblings could be done for. “It’s better than nothing,” she said finally, and Lagoona let a smile grace her freckled features, “But we need a foolproof way to get in contact with them--”

“My _father_ ,” Draculaura clapped a hand to her forehead in sudden realization. “He knows everyone, he has contact with every monster family in the world!”

“What are you waiting for?!” Cleo exploded. “Get up to the hotel and call him already! Tell him what’s happened and that we need Lagoona’s parents to assist us!”

“I’m going, I’m going!” Draculaura called back, running down the path that led to the hotel along the water, clutching her phone in her hands and moving as fast as her short legs would carry her. Cleo took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. It was fine. Well no, it wasn’t fine. But at the same time it was. With the lingering possibility that it wouldn’t ever be again.

“Whe--” No, she wasn’t about to plant false hopes in their heads. “If they’re alive, we’ll find them.”

“Don’t say ‘if,’” Lagoona pleaded in a whisper. “Please don’t say ‘if.’ They have to be alright, they just _have_ to.” Because she would never be able to forgive herself if they weren’t.

 

~

Abbey fanned herself with her hand as she sat on the shore of the deserted island that had unintentionally taken her and her friends hostage, the waves rolling in and covering her legs in cool saltwater before rolling back out again. Usually the heat in a tropical environment would not be a problem for the child of the Yeti, even though she normally thrived in the freezing temperatures of the Himalayan north. But that was before the boat carrying them to the Islands was torn to shreds by the storm, before Abbey was tossed like a cork onto this beach, before…

She lowered her eyes down to her neckline, nibbling on her lip with one of her tusks. The largest gem in her ice crystal necklace had a long crack down the center, no doubt damaged somehow when she was caught in the wreckage. On the outside, compared to the rest of the group, Abbey seemed to be the least injured and beaten up, only sporting a few scrapes along her glittering icy legs and arms. But the damage to this necklace, this necklace that was enchanted to maintain her Himalayan climate around her at all times, was not a good thing. In fact, it had the potential to be a very _bad_ thing if no help came for them soon. She sighed deeply as beads of sweat formed along her hairline, cupping some seawater in her hands and splashing it on her face.

“Uh, Frankie? How long are we supposed to wait here?”

“Shut up, Heath,” Clawdeen snapped. “We have to be here so they can see us when they come back around this way.” Abbey could tell Heath was getting impatient, they all were, which made her decision to keep the necklace issue to herself all the better. She was never one to ask for help from anyone, even if she really needed it, and she didn't want to worry them even more than they already were. But Frankie seemed so sure that Deuce would bring his boat back around to look for them, in which case they would be on their way to the Islands soon and Abbey could get her necklace fixed. But if they didn’t, Abbey wasn’t sure how long she could last out here with no way to keep her body temperature low enough to sustain her.

“Guys,” Jackson said, getting up from the sand and peering up at the sky, pushing his loosened glasses up his nose, “I think we have a problem.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Clawdeen yelled out, watching a series of grey to black clouds roll in from the west. “One wasn’t enough?! We gotta go for Round Two?!”

“ _Easy_ , Clawdeen,” Clawd said, pulling her back from the coast before turning to address the others. “One thing’s for sure, we can’t stay here on the shore if another storm’s rolling in. We better start making our way inland.”

“Sounds good to me!” Heath replied, happy to do anything other than stand around as he reached down to help Abbey to her feet. She looked up into his eyes that reminded her of a mountain sunset as she rose to meet his gaze, until it suddenly all blurred and she shut her eyes, pressing a hand to her forehead. “Whoa, you okay?”

“Standing too fast, am fine,” Abbey blinked rapidly, yet she didn’t let go of Heath as his arms supported her. With the rather large grin spreading across his face, she could tell Heath took that to mean something completely different than what she meant. Leaning his head in to steal a quick kiss, Abbey reached out and pressed his lips together with her clawed fingers. “Not here, not now.”

“Isn’t this usually when you freeze my lips together?” Heath joked, turning to head inland with the others, one arm still around her waist. Abbey looked away quickly to avoid his eyes. _Yes, is usually when I freeze lips together…if I could._

“Well, it’s not like we haven’t been in this situation before, right ghouls?” Frankie said as she walked beside Clawdeen, looking over at Abbey for confirmation.

“You meaning like Skull Shores?” Abbey guessed.

“Yeah, except Skull Shores was a deserted island that had those Tiki things living on it. This island is _literally_ deserted,” Clawdeen rolled her eyes. “It’s totally different.”

“You never know, we could run into someone,” Frankie shrugged.

“Or some- _thing_ ,” Clawd said in a low voice as they trekked into a thicket of palm trees. “Let’s start looking for shelter, first of all. We’ll need it to sleep tonight anyway.”

“Sleep?” Jackson asked, raising his pierced eyebrow. “You think we’re gonna have to spend the night?”

“Once it gets dark, they won’t be able to search for us anyway,” Clawd shook his head. “So if they don’t show up soon, they definitely won’t show up ‘til tomorrow.”

“What’s the matter, Jackson?” Heath chortled. “Afraid the _monsters_ will come and get you?”

“That’s funny, Heath. It was even funnier when you first told it to me. When I was _five._ ”

“And it never gets old.” Heath winked over his shoulder, pulling Abbey closer against him as they walked on ahead. Narrowing his eyes into a _“two can play at that game”_ glare, Jackson grabbed Frankie’s hand and laced his fingers through hers as he pulled her along the dirt path behind them.

“Is not competition, you know,” Abbey whispered to Heath, glancing back at Frankie who had sparked a little at the bolts when Jackson decided to hold her hand.

“Yeah I know, I just like to rile him up,” Heath’s voice still shaking with laughter. “It’s so easy.” But the yeti girl had barely heard him as she felt her eyes grow heavy, her knees give way… _“Whoa!”_

“What’s going on?” Clawd whirled around as Clawdeen gasped, watching Abbey fall forward.

“Abbey!” Heath cried out, hanging onto her as she tried to stand. “I thought she was gonna pass out on me.”

“Are you okay?” Frankie asked, and Abbey sighed in defeat. She had made everyone worry anyway. “Do you need to stop for a minute?”

“I think she needs to lie down,” Heath said as if it were the end of an argument that didn't exist in the first place. Abbey had never heard him sound so serious before, so concerned, and in a way it made her feel good to hear him like this.

“Clawd, we’re stopping here,” Clawdeen announced, bending down to clear out a patch of grass for Abbey to lie down on. “We’ll build the shelter around Abbey, make sure there’s enough room for everyone." As Clawdeen went on giving orders, Abbey felt herself being placed down on the ground, lying on her back so she was facing upward towards the sky.

“Am fine,” she said again, smiling up at Heath. “Feeling tired in the fainting way.”

“That’s why we stopped,” Heath nodded at her as Jackson brought back some large leaves that had fallen from the palm trees in their immediate surroundings. Frankie took them and began to cover Abbey with them until Heath held out his arm, “Hey, hey wait! Don't cover her up, she’s sweating! Put them under her head like a pillow or something.” Frankie’s brow furrowed as she slowly lifted her eyes to meet Heath’s, the reality of what he just said sinking in. Sweating. Abbey was _sweating._

“T-temporary side effect, is very humid,” Abbey said quickly, waving her hand dismissively. She glanced past Heath’s face and looked at the sky above him, flashes of light appearing in the grey clouds. “Good thing we be having storm then.”

“Sure you’re okay?” Frankie asked, her eyes traveling towards the sky as well. “I don’t want to leave you in bad shape.”

“Leave?” Clawd asked, trying to yank down some low-hanging branches. “Where’re you going?”

“Back to the coast,” Frankie said simply before she went back up the path they had just come from.

“Frankie!” Clawdeen and Jackson said together, running to keep up with her while Heath and Abbey watched them go.

“What is she doing?” Heath asked no one in particular, shaking his head in confusion.

“I have idea,” Abbey grinned up at the flashing clouds. “Is not real big storm, just being thunder and lightning passing through. Frankie liking the lightning, she want to go back on coast. Drawn to it like baby yak to mama yak.”

“ _Ohhh,_ ” Heath and Clawd sang out at the same time as Abbey breathed deeply, taking in the temperature as it dropped along with the sun. Feeling Heath’s hands hold her securely, she felt safe and protected enough to peacefully drift in and out of a vulnerable stage of sleep for awhile.

 

~

Draculaura sat on her bed in one of the two luxury hotel suites at the Scaribbean resort, her knees jiggling nervously. It had been almost an hour since she had called her father and was forced to leave a long-worded voicemail when he didn’t pick up. Now she sat with Ghoulia in almost complete silence as they both watched the iCoffin sitting on the bedspread, waiting for it to spring to life.

She snatched it up as soon as the first vibrate made itself heard. “Father?!” she said anxiously, pressing the phone harder than she needed to against her ear. Ghoulia moaned to put it on speaker so she could hear as well and the vampire obeyed. “Father, are you there?!”

“Yes darling,” came the deep voice smooth as velvet on the other end, sporting a thick Romanian accent identical to hers. Although he appeared to sound calm, Draculaura could hear his words laced with immense concern. “I must confess I had trouble discerning the message in your voicemail amidst your panic. We have of course heard there was a shipwreck, it was in the news this evening--”

“We?” Draculaura asked timidly, holding the phone with both hands now. “Who else is there?”

“They are all anxious to hear the details,” the Count went on. “I have offered my hospitality so far to Clawrk and Harriet Wolf, their youngest girl Howleen, as well as Dr. Viktor Stein and his wife Viveka.”

Ghoulia let out a soft little moan as Draculaura felt herself becoming colder with dread than she already was. Why did it have to be them? She swallowed hard. How was she going to tell them that their children had been caught up in the storm and were nowhere to be found?

“Draculaura? Who in your group is missing?”

“C-Clawd and Clawdeen...were on the boat that didn’t make it. S-so was Frankie. And Abbey, Jackson and...and Heath. They’re all missing, Father.” It was so much harder to voice it aloud, in that it finally set in stone the gravity of their situation. She and Ghoulia could hear gasps and cries of “No!” on the other end, and it was enough to make her want to break down right then and there. “Clawd and Abbey were at the helm, but the wind and the waves were just too strong for them and--!"

“There there, my pet,” her father soothed over the phone as Draculaura wiped her nose on her wrist. “I will pass this information to the Burns' and Sydney Jekyll, as well as have Headmistress Bloodgood get word to Abbey’s parents in the mountains. You have informed the Scaribbean coast guard of your situation I presume?”

“Yes,” Draculaura swallowed again, trying to keep her composure, “Cleo sent them out the moment we arrived. But she doesn’t seem to think that will be enough to seek them out and wants to take matters into her own hands.”

“I see,” the lord of vampires said in a tone that suggested he knew Cleo would be the one to take charge, with a hint of admiralty that the spoiled Egyptian princess had assumed the position of leader.

“Father, please tell me you have a way to get in touch with Lagoona’s parents at the Great Barrier Reef,” Draculaura finally said in one breath. “She says they can help if they are informed, but we have no way to contact them here.”

“An excellent idea, my love,” he replied, a hint of pride amidst his concern. “I shall send word at once. However the journey from the Reef to the Scaribbean is a long one, a few days at least.” He paused and his daughter could hear the others in her father’s company in the background, the Wolfs whispering in desperation, the Steins conversing in harsh German. “Are you all willing to gamble your friends' unlives on this risk?”

“Yes,” Draculaura said, clutching hands with Ghoulia now. “We are.”

“You can’t be serious!” growled Clawrk Wolf’s voice and Draculaura and Ghoulia both jumped. Neither of them realized the Count had them on speakerphone as well.

“And what are we supposed to do, sit here and do nothing?!” Harriet chimed in angrily while Howleen whimpered alongside her.

“Precisely,” Draculaura heard her father relay to Clawd and Clawdeen’s parents. “The children have done everything they can and now the time has come to wait.”

“That’s _your_ opinion,” snapped the normally gentle voice of Viveka Stein. “Meanwhile, Viktor and I will be taking the next flight to the Scaribbean.”

“You will do no such thing.”

“How dare you! What gives you the right to tell us what we can and cannot do? My daughter, my only child is lost on the sea somewhere. I am _not_ waiting.” Frankie was right, her dad really could be frightening when he was angry.

“And what good would your interference do, _any_ of yours?” the Count went on firmly addressing them all. Draculaura had half a mind to hang up at this point, but in the end didn’t think it wise until her father dismissed her. “Our children have proven their resourcefulness time and again without our aid, a tried and true testament to the next generation of monsters. We will remain _here_.” There was no response except the sound of sniffling. “Now if you will all excuse me, I have to contact several in our community before the evening is out. My dear Draculaura, I thank you.”

“Thank you, Father,” Draculaura sighed in relief before disconnecting their line. Ghoulia crawled slowly off the bed to go into the suite next door and tell Cleo that Lagoona’s parents were being contacted, while the petite vampire flopped backward onto the pillow. It was done. They were one step closer to finding out the truth, if their friends had survived the storm. And the fact that her father believed so strongly in all of them, that he considered them a testament to monsterkind, was almost enough to make her believe everything would work out for the best.

Almost. Her phone lit up again several minutes later, the name _Howleen_ lighting up the screen. She answered it promptly, “Hello?”

“Draculaura?” The young werewolf’s voice was quiet as if she didn’t want to be overheard. “Don’t worry I’m alone, no one’s listening.” Her voice began to shake, “Do you really think my brother and sister are alright?”

“Oh Howleen,” Draculaura sat up in bed as Howleen began to cry, cradling the phone in her hands as if doing so would console her. “I saw Clawd in the storm, he was steering the boat with all his might. He and Clawdeen were both very brave, I know it worked out in their favor.”

“How are you so sure? My parents aren’t even sure of anything, and Frankie’s parents...they’re all so worried.”

“I’m not,” Draculaura admitted, keeping her voice firm despite the tears spilling down her cheeks. “I’m not sure about anything. But if we don’t keep hoping that they’re out there, then there really _will_ be no hope for them.” She had no idea where these words were coming from, but all she really cared about now was holding onto any shred of faith that was left. “They will be okay, Howleen. All of them will.”

 

~

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” Clawdeen snickered and Jackson jumped slightly as he turned away from the coastline, darkened from the evening storm clouds that fired lightning at the beach in rapid succession. They weren't sure how long he’d been staring at Frankie, standing on the coast with her face upturned to the sky, her hair flowing behind her leaving her sparking neck bolts in plain sight, but it was long enough for Clawdeen to make a remark. But in truth, she thought it was actually really sweet to see a guy looking at Frankie the way Jackson did. The way she and the rest of her friends often caught Frankie glancing back at _him,_ whether she denied it or not.

“Hey!” Jackson called out to Frankie over the thunder and she turned to face him, cupping a hand around her ear. “What?!” she yelled back.

“Make sure you come back here once the tide comes in! You’ve been waterlogged enough already today!”

“Yes, _Dad!_ ” Frankie teased, giggling as she rolled her eyes. Her energy seemed to have replenished greatly since she had gone back to the shore when the lightning storm began, leaving Clawdeen to believe this was probably the best place for her right now.

“C’mon Romeo, Juliet’ll be fine,” the female werewolf tugged on Jackson’s arm, leading him back to where Heath and her brother had set up the shelter. “We need to check on Abbey anyway.” The storm was considerably more lenient the further inland they moved despite the very chilly air blowing around them. But in Abbey’s case this seemed to work out in their favor, and between Clawdeen's and her brother’s fur and Heath’s naturally high body heat, most of them would be okay for a cold night. Even Jackson, being part fire elemental with Holt, would be fine despite his normie status. Maybe waiting a night for the others to come back and find them wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“She lives!” Heath announced happily, gesturing next to him where Abbey had sat up, ice blue color having returned to her face. The yeti gave him a small smile that disappeared as quickly as it came.

“I’m gonna try and get some of these splinters outta my paws,” Clawdeen said as she sat down under the makeshift canopy her brother put over them. Clawd was already nodding off to sleep and Jackson had spread himself out in the covered area across from theirs, tossing his glasses aside and shutting his eyes. It couldn’t have been later than nine or nine-thirty in the evening, but after everything they had been through that day, no one could blame anybody for wanting to turn in early.

“Guess it’s just you and me, huh?” Heath said slyly to Abbey from their corner, his face lit up by the lightning. Abbey looked around to make sure Clawdeen was preoccupied, her wolf whimpers from pulling out her splinters confirming that she would not overhear what Abbey was about to say.

“Heath, am needing to talk to you,” she began, inching a bit closer to him. “Is very important thing you must know. Do not tell the others."

“I already know you’re a pretty big supporter of _us,_ ” Heath grinned, leaning in closer to her as well. "And I think the others are catching on, too."

Abbey shook her head, “Not us. Me. Am not in best of health right now.”

“What do you mean?” Heath asked, looking her straight in the eyes now, all joking aside. Abbey fiddled with the charm around her neck, the largest gem supported between her thumb and index finger.

“This necklace given to me by mother and father up in mountains,” she explained. “Is crucial for me to be wearing at all times when not in frozen climate. Look.” She showed him where the crack divided the gem down the middle. “Is broken in shipwreck. If charm is broken, that meaning I am subject to temperature of my surroundings. It is difficult...it is nearly impossible for me to be surviving on tropical island.”

“Wait, so you mean…” There was no longer any trace of laughter in Heath’s normally jovial eyes, “If we don’t get off this island soon, you might...Abbey, why didn’t you _tell_ anyone?”

“Am not wanting to worry anyone with my...weakness.” She could feel her eyes growing moist despite her best efforts to remain emotionless. “Am not wanting to worry...you.”

“Well bang goes that plan,” Heath muttered, wrapping his arm around her shoulder so she could rest against him. “Listen, you’ll be okay. I bet the others are doing their best to try and find us out here.”

“That far cry from when you say Cleo wanting to pamper herself before looking for us,” Abbey said in a very icy tone, still resentful that Heath thought of Cleo as _that_ shallow.

“I guess I had a change of heart then,” she felt Heath shrug. "I'm sorry I said that." As he turned his head towards her, Abbey let her defenses down for a few moments as her lips were kissed briefly and gently. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you. Okay?”

“Do not be making promises to me you cannot keep,” Abbey whispered, a lone tear trailing from the corner of her eye as they sat together for a long time, with nothing but the thunder to break the silence.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Clawd woke up with a start the following day as if he had never truly fallen asleep. Being the alpha wolf of the pack, his senses always needed to be on alert even when he was vulnerable. An arm had slapped itself across his face in the middle of the night and he looked over and saw his sister sprawled out practically on top of him, arms and legs spread apart as if she had the whole space to herself. Rolling his eyes, he shoved her arm away as Clawdeen let out a very unattractive wolf snore through her mouth and rolled over to invade the space of whoever was on her other side. Now he understood Howleen’s pain whenever they went camping and she had to share a tent with Clawdeen.

Sitting up, he yawned widely and looked around to make sure everyone was accounted for. Heath was also snoring unattractively, dirt streaked across his face from when he tossed and turned in his sleep. Abbey looked as if she had been sleeping against Heath at one point, but now had flopped onto her back with her right arm hanging limply off to the side. On Clawdeen’s other side, Clawd saw that Frankie had indeed returned inland after the lightning storm had passed. Disturbed by Clawdeen’s invasion of her sleeping space, she rolled over and curled herself up against Jackson. This in turn caused the half normie’s eyes to crack open and he looked up to see Clawd.

“Morning,” Jackson yawned, reaching around Frankie to feel for his glasses and put them on. “I’ve been dozing for awhile waiting for someone else to wake up.”

“Well, don’t get up too fast,” Clawd grinned, eyeing Frankie resting next to him. Jackson looked down at her and smiled wistfully, his fingers idly tracing the stitches along her wrist, “Didn’t plan to.”

“What time do you think it is?” Clawd asked, standing to do a full body stretch.

“Going by the position of the sun,” began Heath, Clawd looking at him in surprise that he had woken up as well, “I’d guess around noon-ish.”

 _“Noon?!”_ Clawd dropped back to his knees and began shaking Clawdeen and Frankie awake. “Girls, get up! Get up now!”

“W-what?” Clawdeen lifted her head and blinked the sleep out of her eyes, sniffing the air for any trace of danger. She sighed when she found none, “Geez Clawd, what was that for?”

“What’s happening?” Frankie asked blearily, sitting up to stretch as Jackson went over to Clawd.

“We slept in late,” Jackson confirmed, looking at the sun beating down directly above them. “Really late.”

“Which means Deuce could have come by with the boat earlier this morning and--”

“And we missed it!” Clawdeen finished, clasping at her forehead in despair. “I can’t believe this!”

“Wait, let’s not jump to conclusions,” Frankie held her hands up trying to calm them. “We don’t know anything for sure. Deuce and the others could be on their way right now--”

“Or we missed them!” Heath sided with Clawdeen, pacing the ground nervously.

“How do you know we missed them?”

“How do you know we didn’t?”

“Okay, cut it out,” Clawd said, pressing his fingers to his temples tiredly. “If we’re gonna argue, let’s do it on the shore where a rescue boat can see us.” He knelt down next to Abbey and shook her, “C’mon Abbey, we gotta move.” No response.

“Abbey?” Heath knelt on her other side and brushed her hair away from her face, her eyes closed and unflinching. “Abbey?” he repeated louder.

“Why isn’t she waking up?” Jackson asked shakily, joining the others in crouching around the immobile yeti girl.

“She felt really faint yesterday…” Frankie’s eyes widened in horror. “You don’t think she’s sick, do you?”

“Abbey, come on!” Clawdeen cried out after confirming her pulse was still beating, resisting the urge to smack her awake when Abbey’s eyelids began to flutter slightly. Heath watched her struggle to return to consciousness, biting his lip as he debated with himself whether to tell them everything or not. But Abbey had made him promise not to…

“Mmm…” Abbey moaned faintly, unable to even lift her head to face everyone surrounding her, and it killed Heath to see her like this. Lying helplessly, her normally frozen icy skin beginning to liquify along her arms and forehead. Her stubborn nature kept her from asking for help, from letting the others know about her troubles, even when they were as serious as this. And Heath didn’t need to debate with himself much longer. He knew what Abbey needed more than she did.

“You’re right, Frankie. She is sick.”

“Heath,” Abbey managed to breathe out, her eyes widening as they met his saying _Don’t._

“This,” Heath reached down and lifted up the broken gem on Abbey’s necklace for everyone to see, not relenting even when Abbey’s hand grabbed his to stop it. Clawd and Jackson stared confusedly, but Frankie and Clawdeen understood immediately.

“How did we not notice?” Clawdeen wondered aloud, she and Frankie glancing at each other in shock and disappointment, as if they had failed Abbey as her beast ghoulfriends. “How could we _not notice?_ ”

“I’m confused,” Clawd said, Jackson nodding beside him.

“That necklace maintains Abbey’s snowy climate around her,” Frankie explained gravely. “It’s important for her to keep it on at all times when she’s not in the mountains. If it’s broken and she’s left out in the heat like this--!” She left the sentence hanging, but at this point the boys had gotten the message. Being shipwrecked, landing on this deserted island, having to make do until they were discovered and rescued, all of a sudden it was no longer just a setback in their vacation plans. It was an obstacle, a trial they now needed to overcome, a threat to Abbey’s unlife and who knew who else’s if they remained there much longer.

“We have to get off this island,” Clawdeen said in a deadly serious tone, just before the remaining five of them sprinted down the dirt path shaded by dozens upon dozens of palm trees before emerging into the bright sunlight of the sea shore. A large portion of the debris from their wrecked motor sailboat had been washed away once the tide came in from the storm, leaving a mess of splintered wood. Nothing that even looked remotely salvageable.

“If they’re not going to come to us on their own,” Frankie panted from either running or anxiety, it was impossible to tell, “then we have to _get_ them to come here.” She glanced around at the now dried bits of wood on the sand, “Heath, think you can make a bonfire big enough to be seen from afar?”

“In my sleep,” Heath boasted with a snort of laughter, and Frankie smiled as she and Clawdeen began to gather up the litter of wood. Then the fire elemental’s face relaxed into worry, “But what about Abbey? I can’t just leave her back there alone, what if something--?”

“I’m sure if there were any dangerous creatures on this island we would’ve seen them by now,” Jackson said, yet glanced back into the trees warily. “I doubt anything besides the heat is going to hurt Abbey. But if it makes you feel better, we could probably take turns watching her.”

“Yeah,” Clawd said in an undertone, moving closer to Heath and Jackson and checking to make sure the ghouls were occupied. “Look guys, we may be here awhile. I’m talking like _days_ , maybe, if things don’t start looking unlively out on that horizon. And the most important thing we need to do is stick together. We need have each other’s backs, and most importantly we gotta watch out for the ghouls. Abbey especially, but we gotta keep all of them safe in case--”

“What the heck do you mean _‘gotta keep the ghouls safe’_?” came Clawdeen’s indignant cry. Clawd’s shoulders stiffened as he turned to gaze sheepishly at his little sister and Frankie, both eyeing the three of them with disdain.

“I-I-well, what I meant was--”

“It _sounded_ like you don’t think we can take care of ourselves,” Frankie reprimanded him, causing the tall muscular alpha wolf to cower at her glare.

“All Clawd meant was--”

“Who was it,” Clawdeen cut Jackson off, strolling up to her brother and poking him in the chest, “who organized and put most of the shelter together last night?”

“You did.” Clawd’s ears drooped.

“And who was it who knew how to use mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive you when we crash landed here?” Frankie’s eyes flashed at Jackson, who actually took a step back.

“You did, but--”

“‘But’ nothing,” Clawdeen rounded on him and Heath. “We’re not a bunch of delicate flowers who can’t do anything for ourselves. Sure Abbey’s in bad shape, but she can’t help what happened to her charm necklace. That doesn’t make her completely incapable.”

“It’s not that we think you ghouls are weak or anything,” Heath tried to explain. “It’s just, you know, it’s usually the guys’ job to...look out...for...Clawd, help me out bro.”

“You’re on your own man, they’re scaring me,” Clawd held up his hands at the ghouls in surrender. “And not in a good way.”

“Clawd,” Frankie said, her face softening, “you’re right. Clawdeen and Abbey and I _do_ need you guys to protect us. But only because we _all_ need to protect each other and have each other’s backs. We’re facing something a lot bigger than ourselves here, something we can’t foresee the outcome to. If we’re going to fight back against the odds, then we need to play to each of our strengths and make sure no monster is left behind.”

As they each took turns nodding at each other in agreement, Clawd had to admit he envied Frankie’s natural ability to motivate people. Maybe she was right. Maybe he was going to need to let the others help him out rather than trying to lead the pack by himself. Because that’s what they were now, his pack. They may not all be family, but under the strange and potentially dangerous circumstances they all found themselves in, they were his responsibility. And he in turn was theirs.

 

~

Operetta sat on the beach of the Scaribbean outside their hotel, tuning in her guitar and tuning out the hushed frantic tones of the others in her company. Hushed tones that would more often than not turn into shouting matches, especially when Cleo de Nile was involved. She rolled her eyes, fiddling with the pick between her long nailed fingers and finding the string that laid out the first pitch. As she strummed quietly, she found the tune slipping into a song that was currently in progress, namely a song she and Holt Hyde had been collaborating on for the better part of six months. They didn’t always agree on which music styles were superior to others, but Operetta had a lot of respect for the hot-tempered DJ’s abilities, his instincts to create art that a monster could only truly be born with. Sure they’d made sweet music together during her short fling with him, but more often than not they both would be guilty of getting distracted in each other’s company. In the end, the phantom really didn’t think she was cut out to deal with the baggage that came with both Holt’s alter ego condition with Jackson and his short temper causing him to fly off the handle too easily. He was still a great cohort in her rebellious musical funk, a funk that often caused her to alienate herself from others.

It all worked out for the best though, Operetta recalled with a half smile. Once Holt became taken with Frankie Stein and started seeing her, the inspiration came flowing out of him so fast that Operetta could hardly keep up, the tunes and mixes he came up with nothing short of what he called “electrifying.” It reminded her of the way Deuce had confided in her his true feelings for Cleo and how he felt that the princess, who Operetta couldn’t help seeing as a spoiled brat, had always brought out the best in him. Frankie was a sweet kind-hearted ghoul, but she had enough bite in her to keep Holt, and his mellow side Jackson, under control. And in turn, she brought out the best in Holt’s imagination and creative spirit by simply lighting up his unlife, sometimes literally. In Operetta’s eyes, it couldn’t have been a better match.

Reaching the end of the stanza, and the end of their collaboration thus far, she let her hand fall limply away from the vibrating strings, the last note fading into the still afternoon air. She had hoped they would be able to, if not finish the song, make some more headway with this tricky bridge section that had often kept her up all night at the organ trying to make sense of it. But since Jackson had gotten lost on the sea, that meant no Holt either. She sighed deeply as the flurry of conversation from the others, no longer drowned out by her guitar, brought her sharply back to the horrible reality of their situation. Operetta often tried to not let pesky little hindrances like emotions cloud her hard-headed, sharp-witted view on life. But she had really warmed up to these ghouls she had come to call her friends, especially since joining the Skulltimate Roller Maze team. She didn’t scare easily, but knowing there was a possibility some of her friends might never make it home gave her a chill she had been unable to shake for the past day.

“The guard is still on patrol,” Cleo announced as if this was news to everyone, and was only half-heartedly acknowledged. Draculaura was sitting nervously in the sand, holding her phone tightly in her grasp as if expecting her father to call at any moment. Lagoona stood staring out at the sea like Operetta was, eyes blank and lips slightly parted, completely zoned out. Deuce was pacing as if his unlife depended on it, kicking up sand as he went, while Ghoulia sat at her laptop typing frantically. Not a single one of them seemed to know what to do with themselves, but that sure didn’t stop Cleo from trying to make herself heard. Irate that no one seemed to care that she was speaking, she cleared her throat unnecessarily loudly. “They _did_ , however, find remains of what looked like a motor sailboat!”

“They what?!” Deuce cried out, his pacing ceased at once as he grabbed Cleo by the shoulders. “They found...they found the boat?”

“They found the boat _remains?_ ” Lagoona asked fearfully, pressing her hands to her lips.

“They don’t know for sure, but the way they described it sounds identical to the one we rode in on,” Cleo went on.

“Cleo, you better not be makin’ this up just for attention,” Operetta finally said, whirling around to face her through narrow eyes. “Did the coast guard captain really say all that?”

“Yes!” Cleo cried angrily, glaring daggers at Operetta. “How on earth could you even suggest I would make something like this up?!”

“Oh I dunno, ya’ll had no problem makin’ stuff up when Holt almost got himself _killed_ by those normies last Halloween!” Operetta shot at her, causing a severe dent in Cleo’s pride by bringing up possibly her worst blunder.

“And you think I don’t still feel absolutely awful about that?” the mummy bit out through gritted teeth, her eyes growing moist at the mere thought of it. Then she took a deep breath as if choosing her words carefully, finally settling on a simple “I’m telling the truth, Operetta.”

“I believe you,” Deuce said quietly, his arm resting comfortably around her waist. “I knew the boat couldn’t have been strong enough once it was blown off course.”

Ghoulia let out a series of inquisitorial groans, after which Cleo shook her head. “No, nothing about Clawd and the others yet.” They heard a sniffle from Draculaura’s direction but the vampire had her head bowed to hide her face from them, still staring at her phone.

“I know!” Cleo said suddenly in higher spirits, clapping her hands together, “Why don’t we all get a big brunch in the hotel and then take a walk into the city?”

“Are you for real?” Lagoona said as if she’d lost her mind, Operetta turning around to stare back out at the water in a huff.

“We’ve done absolutely nothing except sit around worrying ever since we got here,” Cleo elaborated, her arm coming up around Deuce in return. “I think we should do just a little something to take our minds off of it. Sight-seeing, shopping, Deuce will _gladly_ carry all our bags--”

“I don’t think so,” Operetta said sulkily, putting her guitar back in the case and snapping it shut.

“Or we could just sit out here and waste a perfectly beautiful day on pins and needles about something that is completely out of our hands!” Her eyes narrowed, her shoulders heaving as she breathed heavily, Cleo stood tall and steadfast as she looked around at each of them. “I am just as scared as all of you are, I really am. So we’ll spend this afternoon in town, take care of ourselves for awhile, then we’ll come back here once the sun sets and figure out what to do next.”

“I’d kind of feel guilty about having any fun with the other dudes lost out there,” Deuce said, the snakes on his head wilting in sadness.

“Trust me, they would want us to be having some leisure time,” Cleo said, patting his firm chest in comfort. “Draculaura?” she asked the vampire who still kept her face hidden, “What do you think, sweetie?”

Letting out another great sniff, Draculaura lifted her head and tucked her phone back into her beach bag. “I do think it’s better than sitting out here all day,” she finally said in a small voice, smiling wanly up at them.

“Well good,” Cleo said satisfactorily, helping her to her feet. “Just for that, you can pick where we eat.”

“We will be back in just a few hours, right?” Lagoona asked as they gathered their things and started to march back to the hotel. “I really want to catch the coast guard the moment they return.”

“Of course,” Cleo confirmed, leading the group up the beach, “I’ll want to have a word with them as well.” Only Operetta hung back. If she were a fire elemental, she was sure steam would be rising out of her ears that very moment. There were times she could tolerate her, and then there were times that she truly could not stand Cleo de Nile.

 

~

“So we made that whole spiel about how we’re just as capable as they are, and then they send us off to find _food?_ ” Clawdeen growled as she and Frankie pushed their way through brambled bushes and low-hanging palm branches. “This is like those awful ‘make me a sandwich’ jokes you see all over the internet.”

“Well, someone has to do it,” Frankie pointed out, sucking in a sharp breath as her arm caught on a small thicket of thorns. “When’s the last time any of us ate anything?”

“Now that I think about it, I could really go for a nice juicy steak right about now,” Clawdeen sighed as she thought of her distant dream of a full meal fit for a werewolf. She looked over at Frankie who was examining her arm that had gotten snagged.

“Phew, it was just my shirt sleeve,” Frankie said, flicking the torn fabric of her T-shirt aside. “The thread in my stitching is starting to fray, but nothing too serious.”

“I don’t get it,” Clawdeen had to laugh. “Your limbs fly off left and right at Fearleading practice, but we get tossed and thrown around in a shipwreck and you're still in one piece?”

“Lucky, I guess,” Frankie shrugged, feeling her neck seams and bolts and securing them tighter. “Besides, the last thing we need is me falling apart and having _another_ problem on our hands.”

“You ask me, your stitching’s the least of your worries,” Clawdeen glanced her beast friend up and down. Frankie’s face was a mess of streaked dirt from sleeping on the ground, brown mixed with mint green reminding Clawdeen of a grubby front lawn. Her T-shirt and skirt were wrinkled and torn, her black and white tresses tangled and frizzy, and her eyeliner and lipstick looked like Draculaura’s did when Clawdeen forgot to supervise her.

“To be fair, you don’t look much better,” Frankie folded her arms, surveying the female werewolf’s untamed afro of dark auburn hair, smudged eye makeup and ripped halter top, dirt covering the knees of her skinny capris.

“Yeah, but at least I don’t have a boyfriend to look good for,” Clawdeen said casually over her shoulder as she walked smugly ahead of Frankie into a sunny clearing devoid of shade.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Frankie murmured, glancing around as if someone else could be listening in, her hand moving up to nervously twirl a strand of hair between her fingers.

“Oh okay,” Clawdeen nodded in mock seriousness. “I’m sure that’s why you guys picked the secluded corner booth when Draculaura saw you two together at the Diener last weekend.”

Frankie tried to control herself but couldn’t help letting a couple of sparks fly from her neck bolts. “It was a date. Just a date. You’ve been on dates, Clawdeen.”

“Not usually with the same guy twice, especially after Clawd gets through talking to them,” Clawdeen added, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Come to think of it, you and Jekyll and Hyde never _technically_ broke up, did y--?”

“Hey, check these out!” Frankie called a little too enthusiastically, beyond thankful for the distraction of a type of bush she recognized. “These look edible.”

“And good,” Clawdeen admitted, picking at what she could see were mint leaves. “I put these in my tea, but never really thought of them for a meal.”

“Then let’s keep looking,” Frankie walked briskly on ahead, desperate to keep the topic off of her and Jackson while Clawdeen shook her head at her departing figure as she grabbed branches of the sweet mint leaves off of the bush. If this was all they came back with, she was sure the large portion craving boys would not be happy. _“Voltage!”_ came a cry from the trees up ahead.

“What?!” Clawdeen got up from the ground with the leaves in hand, unsure if Frankie’s exclamation was in enthusiasm or dread. “What is it?!”

“I hit the jackpot!” Frankie said cheerfully, clapping like a child in a candy store. Sometimes Clawdeen forgot that Frankie was barely two years old, and other times it was painfully obvious. “I didn’t think all islands had them, but this one does!” When Clawdeen reached where she stood, she saw the reason for her excitement. Coconut trees, at least four or five of them, stood clustered together creating a rather cool and breezy space of shade.

“We might wanna consider moving Abbey under here to keep cool,” Clawdeen remarked, inhaling deeply as the breeze ruffled her fur. The leaves rustled above her as Frankie started to shake the brown trunk of the tree rapidly, bringing three coconuts careening to the ground at the werewolf’s feet. “Wow, you’re stronger than you look, ghoul.”

“And look!” Frankie exclaimed again, pointing to a bush a little further ways down the path sporting bluish grey fruit. “I’m not sure what kind of berries these are but--”

“Who cares, let’s bring ‘em back to the guys so they quit complaining about how hungry they are,” Clawdeen said hastily, adding handfuls of the berries to her mint leaf collection as Frankie scooped up the three coconuts she shook loose from the trees. Making their way back to the shore, Clawdeen walked up ahead to see how the guys were fairing with Heath’s bonfire that would, hopefully, elicit an effective cry for help from the stranded group. What she didn’t expect to see was what appeared in her line of vision when she emerged from the trees. “Whoa...”

“What?” Frankie asked, struggling to keep all three coconuts from rolling out of her arms.

“Don’t look now, but all the guys have their shirts off.” Clawdeen might not have had boys at the top of her high school priority list, but she wasn’t completely rigid and had weaknesses like any other girl her age. Clawd she was used to, being a part of several of the top sports’ teams at Monster High definitely left its consequences on him, but Heath and Jackson? That was a surprise. Apparently it was to Frankie as well, who had looked over Clawdeen’s shoulder to see what she was staring at and let out an _“Eep!”_ as the coconuts spilled to the ground.

“I-I-oh my,” Frankie put a dazed hand to her face. “I mean it makes sense, being second string on the Casketball team he needs to stay in shape but...who _knew?_ ”

Clawdeen didn’t need to look at Frankie to know who she had her eyes on. “I don’t get you, ghoul,” she shook her head. “He’s really cute, in a nerdy kinda way. Definitely your speed. Those toned abs are just an added bonus.” She heard Frankie sigh and turned to see the stitched monster winding a finger tightly around a black and white hair strand before slowly meeting her friend’s gaze. “Talk to me.”

“You know how you feel about guys, how you don’t feel like you’re ready to make a serious commitment like that yet?” Frankie asked timidly, and Clawdeen nodded. “I look at Cleo and Deuce, and Clawd and Draculaura. I see what they have and I want that, I really do, but...how do I know when it’s time? How do I know I made the right choice?” All of a sudden, Clawdeen felt bad for teasing Frankie about her obvious feelings for Jackson. In the end, she and Frankie weren’t so different when it came to guys and relationships. She watched Frankie lower her head, picking at her arm seams absentmindedly. “I don’t want to screw this up again. I can’t do that to Jackson, or Holt. He doesn’t deserve that, not someone like me who’s klutzing her way through life just trying to figure everything out.”

“Hey,” Clawdeen said sharply but not unkindly, forcing Frankie’s fingers away from her seams so she didn’t accidently undo them and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “You don’t need years of life experience to know what it feels like to really care about someone. You just...know it. You’re only monster and you’re gonna make mistakes. Some of them are gonna hurt really bad. But always go with your gut feeling, ‘cause it’s usually right.”

Frankie looked up at Clawdeen and smiled, “You know, my mom said that exact same thing the night before my first day at Monster High.”

“Moms know everything, it’s like a sixth sense,” Clawdeen chuckled. “And speaking of sensing things...Heath and Abbey?”

“Oh you _know it,_ ” Frankie giggled behind her hand, “Abbey hasn’t said anything, but you can just tell it’s getting close to official.”

“If it hasn’t already,” Clawdeen laughed just as Heath’s yell pierced through the silence.

“Hey, where’s those ghouls with the food?!”

“It’s like we went for Chinese takeout or something,” Clawdeen rolled her eyes indignantly as Frankie scooped up the fallen coconuts and followed her to the shore. A large bonfire was ignited as close to the water as possible, flames leaping high from a pile of every bit of splintered wood the boys could find on the coast.

“I made _fire!_ ” Heath called dramatically to the sky, thumping his fists against his bare chest.

“On a daily basis,” Jackson added sarcastically, and Frankie laughed.

“Coconuts and leaves, the meal of champions!” Clawd spread his arms wide in mock celebration, his hairy chest glistening with sweat.

Clawdeen growled and tossed a branch in his face, “You don’t like it, you get the food next time!”

“I can deal, it’s not long term,” Clawd held up his hands in surrender, trying to crack open the coconut on his knee and failing. “Hey Heath, gimme your head for a second.”

“Ha ha, that’s hilarious!” Heath fake laughed as Jackson slapped Clawd a high five.

“I’m gonna go bring a spread to Abbey,” Clawdeen said, gathering up a portion of the food. “Anyone check on her lately?”

“She’s awake, but kinda zoning in and out,” Heath replied, his smile fading a bit.

“We found this really cool shaded area under the coconut trees,” Frankie said as Clawdeen left to move inland. “Maybe we should relocate over there for Abbey’s health.”

“Good idea,” Clawd nodded, shoving a handful of leaves into his mouth, “We’ll do that after we eat.”

“Heath, wait a minute!” Jackson cried out, grabbing his cousin’s hand that held a handful of the bluish grey berries, “Did you swallow any of these?” Heath shook his head, his cheeks bulged full of berries. “Spit them out!”

“What’s wrong?” Frankie asked as Heath spit noisily into the fire.

“Where did you find these?” Jackson asked frantically, scooping up more berries and tossing them into the fire.

“Over by the coconuts, why?”

“They’re poisonous, that’s why!” Jackson yelled, and Frankie recoiled at his tone. “Anyone else eat them?”

“No,” Clawd answered and Frankie shook her head, then gasped. “Clawdeen! She took some to Abbey!” Colorful words erupted from both Clawd’s and Heath’s mouths as they all leapt up from the sand and sprinted up the path to their makeshift shelter. They arrived just in time to see Clawdeen, sitting next to a barely awake Abbey, pop one of the berries into her mouth.

“Spit it out!” Heath bellowed, whacking Clawdeen hard on the back as if that would help anything. To his credit, it did cause Clawdeen to cough up the berry, “What the _heck_ , Heath?!”

“They’re poisonous,” Clawd explained, and Clawdeen’s eyes widened. “Did you eat any?”

“No, that was the only one,” Clawdeen said, looking quickly over at Abbey. “You?”

“Only leaves,” Abbey said weakly, sitting propped up on her elbow and nibbling on some of the greenery, “Am not very hungry.”

“Get rid of them, get rid of them all,” Jackson ordered, kicking the remaining bunch of fruit into the grass behind them.

“I’m sorry,” Frankie’s voice broke, her hands over her mouth. “I’m so sorry. It was my idea to gather them, I should’ve known--”

“It’s not your fault, Frankie,” Clawd assured her, “Any one of us could’ve made that mistake, not just you.”

“How did _you_ know anyway?” Heath asked Jackson, then the answer dawned on him before the half normie could respond and they recited together “Ten summers at Camp Chippewa.”

“We learned to identify all the different kinds of harmful berries,” Jackson clarified, pushing his glasses up his nose before turning to Frankie, who still looked shaken. “I’m sorry I yelled,” he said, moving closer and placing a hand on her shoulder. “I was just scared, I wasn’t blaming you. You didn’t know.” Frankie nodded and smiled up at him, covering his hand with her own.

“Well there goes one of our three food sources,” Clawdeen said glumly, crossing her hands over her bent knees in defeat.

“Where the fish?” came Abbey’s quiet inquiry, and Heath looked down at her quizzically. “You no go out in ocean and catch fish?”

“Nah, we sent the ghouls to get the food,” Heath answered.

“Boys get food, too,” Abbey said in blunt exasperation of Heath’s attitude towards boys’ and girls’ roles. “Now shoo, go get fish.”

“We do have a bonfire to cook them on,” Clawd pointed out, standing up to head back to the shore. “C’mon guys, let’s go catch some dinner.”

“I don’t think I’m gonna be very good at this,” Heath said warily, squeezing Abbey’s hand before he got up to follow Clawd.

“Me neither,” Clawd said. “Guess we’re gonna have to learn to be good at it if we wanna eat tonight.”

Clawdeen watched them go, still struck dumb from what had just happened, how they could have all died had they eaten the poisonous fruit. Here she thought finding dangerous beasts or crawly creatures with ill intentions were the worst thing they had to fear on this island. Now she knew that danger on this particular island could come in the most unlikely of forms, and left her with a gut feeling that maybe they weren’t all as safe here as they thought.

 

~

“Well, I don’t know about you all, but for me that was just what the witch doctor ordered,” Cleo said in exhilaration, sporting a brand new outfit from Abercreepy and Witch accented in her signature gold. Traipsing along the beach in her sore stiletto-heeled feet, she fought to stay the epitome of Egyptian royalty in stance and walk even though her feet were killing her.  

“I do feel a bit happier,” Draculaura chirped between Ghoulia and Operetta, also breaking in a new dress in her signature pink and black.

“I’m not happy,” Operetta grumbled under her breath. “Bought a new guitar pick, but I’m not happy about it.” Ghoulia let out a fluttery moan that only slightly sounded like a laugh.

Lagoona, who had run straight for the coast guard upon their return, came rushing back up to them in her new forest green swimsuit and matching mesh skirt. “The search team of zombies isn’t back yet.”

“It’s almost nightfall!” Cleo exclaimed, gesturing out to the horizon, “What’s keeping them?”

“I dunno, but they haven’t found anything apart from the boat wreckage earlier,” Lagoona shook her head. Ghoulia moaned again.

“No Ghoulia, no news is definitely not good news, not in this case!” Cleo stopped her feet from wandering aimlessly. Royalty does not pace, they stand their ground no matter what. Considering their remaining options, Cleo realized that the time might have indeed come to take matters into their own hands. “Alright, here is what we’re going to do,” she announced to the group, Deuce and Draculaura actually leaning forward. “I am going to talk the coast guard into securing us three boats. We will split into pairs and each take a boat out on the water--”

“Wait a gol' darn second,” Operetta snapped her compact shut where she had been checking her face to distract herself from Cleo’s rambling and looked her dead on. “Are you suggestin’ we split up to search for them?”

“Precisely,” Cleo gave her a curt nod. “We’ll cover more ground, we’ll search the exact location they were lost in--”

“And we’ll run the risk of losin’ even more people on this _vacation,_ ” Operetta finished in a low dangerous tone, causing Draculaura to let out a soft whimper. “Is that what you want, your highness?”

“You have been bound and determined to override every decision I’ve made ever since we got here,” Cleo advanced toward her speaking in an equally low, cruel sounding tone. “Pray tell, what do you suggest we do?”

“I suggest we let the guard do their job and wait for Lagoona’s folks to get here and search for themselves,” Operetta took a few steps towards the princess as well. “Instead of barkin’ orders like you know exactly what in the heck you’re doin’ when in reality you don’t have a _clue._ ”

“I am doing the best I can, just like you are and just like everyone here is,” Cleo hissed at her. “There are too many risks in simply waiting for Lagoona’s parents to arrive. If the others managed to survive, they’ll be starved and dehydrated in another two or three days!”

“There’s too many risks if we strike out on our own, too!” Operetta shot back. “It’s hurricane season! What if another storm hits while we’re out on the boats?! What if it’s Ghoulia or _Deuce_ that gets shipwrecked next time?!”

“What are the _odds_ another storm of that caliber will strike?!”

“Pretty good odds!”

“Oh my Ra, you are impossibly infuriating!”

“At least I’m a decent monster who doesn’t command attention--”

“Someone has to!”

“--or be willin’ to risk anyone’s unlife here when we don’t even know if this whole entire _blasted_ search is in vain or not!”

“Dudes!” Deuce finally roared out, physically forcing his girlfriend and Operetta apart before they began literally tearing each other’s throats out. Then he looked around and realized, for the first time, that he was the only ‘dude’ there. “Uh--lady dudes," he corrected no less firmly. “You both need to stop this _now._ ”

“Why, so we can do exactly as she says, like we always do?!” Operetta flung at him angrily.

“No, _that’s_ why.” The gorgon nodded his head over both of their shoulders, and Cleo and Operetta turned to see where he was looking. Unbeknownst and completely unheard by either of them in the heat of their fight, Draculaura had burst into tears. Ghoulia had her arms wrapped around her as the tiny vampire wept openly, tears flowing down her face and staining the front of her brand new frock.

“I’m taking the poor dear back to the hotel,” Lagoona said gently, taking Draculaura by the hand and guiding her in the direction of the hotel with Ghoulia at her side. She glared back over her shoulder at the feuding pair, “The both of you need to take a breather and realize we’re all on the same page here. Especially _you._ ” To Operetta’s shock, Lagoona’s glare bore directly into hers before she turned her attention back to Draculaura.

“Ghoulia, why don’t you go on ahead and get a hot bath running for her in the jacuzzi?” Lagoona said to the zombie, who fished the suite card key out of her handbag before skulking slowly towards the hotel lobby.

“I’m sorry,” Draculaura’s breath hitched as she tried to speak, “I don’t know what came over me back there.”

“I do,” Lagoona stroked her pink-streaked pigtails gently, “I know exactly what came over you.” With a great shudder, Draculaura’s face crumpled as another torrent of tears flooded out, dripping steadily from her chin.

“I might never see Clawd again!” she sobbed, failing to stem the flood of tears with her hands. “Or Clawdeen, or Frankie, or any of them! I’ve tried so hard to be strong and tell myself that it will all be fine, but I just--” Lagoona said nothing but reached out and embraced her, holding her securely as Draculaura unleashed her pain and fear in full force onto her shoulder.

“You just need someone to lean on,” Lagoona finished softly in her ear, rubbing her back. Not one of them could possibly blame her one bit for feeling the way she did, with no way of finding the lost group and things falling apart in their own ranks. And although Lagoona would never admit it aloud, especially not now to her heartbroken friend, the sea monster wished with all her heart that at that very moment Gil was there to hold her as close as possible and tell her everything would be alright.

 


	4. Chapter 4

The dusk clouds were beginning to roll in as the sunlight disappeared, signaling the end of their third day stranded on this island. _Three whole days,_ Frankie thought exhaustedly, running her fingers through her greasy saltwater entangled hair. What she wouldn’t give for a steam bath, a complete washdown in vapor since she was unable to immerse herself in water. At Clawdeen’s insistence, the three ghouls had all washed their makeup off in the sea since, according to the boys, the sweat induced smearing was starting to make them look scary, and not in a good way. But fortunately enough, the incoming evening was turning out to be a cooler one than they'd had, and the formerly weakened Abbey was now sitting in the tide as it washed in and out from the shore, soaking up its dropping temperature as her strength returned to her. No one was taking more advantage of Abbey’s temporary revivement than Heath, who had spent at least an hour out in the sea with Abbey helping nurse her back to health in the only way the flirtatious fire elemental knew how. None of them had ever seen Abbey in such intimate proximity with anyone before, let alone Heath Burns who had been after her since day one, and figured Abbey must have really decided to trust him if she allowed such physical closeness.

“What?” Abbey asked, catching Frankie staring at her with that knowing smile again. “Was just hugs and what Draculaura call ‘smooches’ with Heath. Am speaking truth.”

“I believe you,” Frankie said. “I guess I’m just surprised you didn’t tell us.”

“Am not wanting the attention,” Abbey confessed. “I tell you, you tell ghouls, Spectra Vondergeist find out, whole school knows. Am not wanting that right now.”

“I understand,” Frankie nodded, “Trust me, I totally understand.” She looked over at the bonfire several feet away where Jackson was throwing his T-shirt back on in response to the chilly air. He looked over at where she sat on the rock dipping her feet in the tide and waved. Frankie waved back with a slight smile. It was getting harder and harder for her to smile lately. The massive bonfire Heath had conjured up appeared useless as it hadn’t caught the attention of one passing ship or plane, which none of them could understand. The island wasn’t small in the least and the air wasn’t opaque with fog, plus the storm clouds had dispersed long ago. And where was Deuce? How come none of the others had been able to come back this way over the course of three days? How on earth could nothing and nobody seem to notice six teenagers stranded on a hunk of land in the middle of the sea? None of this was working out in the way Frankie had envisioned it would and it was starting to wear the group thin. Abbey’s periods of revivement were getting shorter and shorter while the thrill of adventure and the unknown amongst the boys and ghouls alike had been exhausted by the close of day three, leaving them with nothing but a dull ache of dread.

“Hey ghouls,” Clawd said as he, Clawdeen and the boys made their way over to the rock Frankie and Abbey were conversing on.

“What happened to sitting around the bonfire?” Frankie asked, noticing Clawd was still reeking of seawater from being out catching fish earlier for dinner, a feat he was actually quite good at.

“Figured we’d go where Abbey is since her being by the bonfire probably wouldn’t be the best idea,” Clawd assessed. He and Clawdeen had sort of assumed the roles as team leaders, or pack leaders in their case, calling the shots on pretty much every decision that was made in terms of their survival. Far from the strong confident leaders they started out with, the Wolf siblings looked as weary and fatigued as the rest of them. “Guys,” Clawd finally said, looking up at all of them, “I think it’s time to start weighing our options.”

“What kind of options do we have?” Heath asked, sitting beside Abbey in the tide with his arm around her. “We’re stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere.”

“Our food supplies are gonna run low eventually,” Clawdeen elaborated. “We have no water supply, how much longer do you think we’re gonna last under these conditions?”

“Another three days tops, maybe four,” Jackson answered, shoving his hands deep in his pockets.

“Thanks, Bill Nye the Doom and Gloom Guy,” Heath rolled his eyes at his cousin before staring back out at the water. “Geez, I can’t believe it’s been this long and _no one’s_ noticed us out here yet. I bet our parents know we didn’t make it to the Islands by now.”

“Aw man,” Clawd and Clawdeen groaned together, the latter smacking a hand to her forehead as the former rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“My mom is gonna freak, _both_ sides of her will,” Jackson sighed, slumping down on the rock next to Frankie.

“My parents are never gonna let me go anywhere again,” Frankie buried her face in her hands, realizing this was now the _second_ time she had gotten herself in trouble on an uncharted island.

“Well at least your folks know you’re safe with me, right Abbey?” Heath asked, hugging her closer with his arm and throwing a smug grin at Jackson.

“Yeah, totally safe,” Jackson added, throwing his arm around Frankie while smirking back at Heath.

“Is not comforting thought to them, I assure you,” Abbey said bluntly.

“Jackson,” Frankie raised her eyebrows at him, “Your mom is gonna be the least of your worries when my dad finds out I’ve been stranded on a deserted island with you under no adult supervision.”

“Good point,” Jackson said hastily, removing his arm from Frankie with a slight shudder at the thought of seven-foot tall Mr. Stein’s reproachful gaze.

“They might never find out what happened here,” Clawdeen said with a sigh, resting her chin in her clawed hands. “By the time anyone finds us, it could be too late.” No one needed to ask what ‘too late’ meant.

“Mmm…” Abbey, who had attempted to stand after sitting in the tide for several minutes, suddenly keeled over the boulder everyone was resting on.

“Abbey!” Heath exclaimed, helping her stand by flinging one arm over his shoulders. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be okay, it’s gotta be like forty degrees out!”

“Is still too warm,” Abbey breathed heavily. Frankie glanced in horror at Abbey’s necklace, its normal blue color having faded to a dark grey. “Am unable to...wake up…” All five of them called her name out as she fainted completely, her head dropping on Heath’s shoulder.

“It’s been too long,” Heath said anxiously as Clawd moved to help him lift her. “Three days is too long for her to be out here without her charm working.”

“So what do we do?” Jackson asked.

“I don’t know what we do!” Heath burst out, his hair igniting for a few moments in anger before extinguishing just as quickly. The others stared at him in complete shock, having never seen the laid-back fire elemental like this before. “I don’t know. I’ve done everything I can think of to help her and it hasn’t been enough. And nothing ever will be until I can get her some place cold, freezing cold. So tell me, Mr. Ten Summers at Camp Chippewa, how do I fix _that_ problem?”

“Simmer down, Heath, I’m just trying to help,” Jackson said calmly.

“Yeah? What’ve you done to help, except spout random facts and throw wood on a fire? Name one useful thing you’ve done, Jackson!”

“Leave him alone,” Frankie said in a cold voice that sounded unnatural even to her, stepping between them. “Heath, I know you’re worried about Abbey, we all are, but don’t take your frustration out on Jackson.”

“You _would_ jump to his defense,” Heath shot at her over his shoulder as he and Clawd carried Abbey back to the shaded cluster of coconut trees to rest. Amidst her defensive stance, Frankie felt a pang in her heart from Heath’s comment and the condescending tone in which he’d said it. But in all fairness, Heath was out of sorts due to his anxiety over a ghoul he was incredibly fond of, and as such was very protective of her. However even Clawd must have realized he was taking things too far when they returned a minute later with Heath yelling, “Don’t tell me to calm down, Clawd!”

“Heath tell me, how is yelling at everyone gonna help Abbey recover, huh?!” Clawdeen roared as she stomped through the sand over to him. “Answer me that one!”

“I’m not yelling at everyone, I’m yelling at him!” Heath pointed over Frankie’s shoulder where Jackson stood glaring at him. “He can rattle off all these facts about poisonous fruit and camping out and making shelters, but he can’t come up with one way to get us off this island?!”

“Sorry I missed the ‘make a boat out of nothing to get off an island’ seminar, my bad!” Jackson yelled back, advancing toward him and yanking his arm from Frankie’s grip as she tried to hold him back. “Maybe I could come up with something if some monsters were even concerned with trying to get us off of here in the first place.”

Clawd blinked. “Was that directed at me?”

“Since we’ve all decided to get our feelings out in the open, then yeah it was,” Jackson folded his arms over his chest, his gaze moving to Clawd. “With Abbey’s health being the way it is, you and Clawdeen have spent way too much time trying to survive out here and not enough time trying to _leave_.”

“We made a bonfire, what more do you want?!” Clawd flung his arm back to indicate the leaping flames.

“Maybe something smart, like not using every last bit of wood debris from the boat to burn in a bonfire that’s not even helping our cause in the slightest!”

“Hey watch yourself, _normie!_ ” Clawdeen growled as she targeted Jackson next, letting the slur drip with venom.

“Clawdeen!” Frankie cried out in shock, but the female wolf ignored her.

“My brother and I have worked our behinds off to keep you alive this long. You got a problem with it, then I got no problem leaving you to rot!”

“Take it easy, Clawdeen, you don’t mean that,” Clawd said, not taking his cold stare off of Jackson. “Nobody means anything they’re saying right now, we’re all just getting this stuff off our chests.”

“Speak for yourself!” Heath and Jackson said at the same time, then both turned to eye each other dangerously.

“I can’t help that we haven’t been found out here yet! All we can do, all we’ve really been able to do is take this one day at a time!” Clawd said angrily to Jackson and Heath. “How is any of that _my_ fault?!”

“I don’t know, ask Abbey! She’s the one who’s gonna die out here!” Heath’s voice broke.

“Cut it out, all of you!” Frankie shouted, the four of them jumping back as sparks exploded from her fingertips and neck bolts. “What is happening to us?! We’ve been working so great as a team for the past three days, and now it’s all just gonna fall apart at the seams over one stupid argument?! Why don’t we just agree to disagree and keep moving forward?"

“Why agree to disagree?” Clawdeen narrowed her golden eyes at her.

“Because…” Frankie hesitated, looking around at each of them and choosing her words very carefully. “Because Jackson has a point, Clawdeen. I mean, you were the one who said we needed to get out of here in the first place when Abbey got sick. So...when do you plan to get on that?”

Clawdeen’s jaw dropped, “ _Et_ you, Frankie?”

“I think you mean _‘Et tu, Frank--’_”

“Shut up, Jackson!” Clawdeen shouted before whipping her gaze back to Frankie, Clawd silently glaring behind her. “Need I remind you that the bonfire was _your_ idea.”

“I didn’t say burn _all_ the remains!” Frankie exclaimed. “I thought it would have been obvious that--!”

“Oh it would’ve been _obvious,_ did you hear that Clawd?” Clawdeen folded her arms. “Apparently we’re stupid now according to the nerd couple here.”

“Clawdeen, I didn’t mean--”

“What, you get a boyfriend and suddenly you lose the ability to think for yourself?”

“Ex- _cuse_ me?!” Frankie shrieked feeling like Clawdeen had slapped her, sparks lighting up her face shadowed by the setting sun.

“Don’t you think Clawd and I have done everything for all of us that we could possibly think of?!”

“To survive, yes,” Frankie tried again calmly, resentment still evident in her tone. “To overcome the odds, no.”

Clawdeen took a step backward towards her brother. “You know what? I take back what I said yesterday. Maybe you are just some thrown-together monster klutzing her way through life. And not doing a very good job at it either.”

“Hey, that’s enough!” Jackson flung at Clawdeen, wrapping an arm around Frankie’s waist. Frankie tried to look daggers back at her beast friend, but the fierceness lost its effect in a thick veil of tears.

“Why don’t you go waste space somewhere else while I stay here and actually _take care_ of Abbey?!” Heath finally threw his hands up at Jackson, whose eyes widened as if his cousin had punched him in the gut.

“Fine, I will!” he yelled once he found his voice again, taking Frankie by the arm. “C’mon Frankie, let’s go.”

“Where do you think you’re going?!” Clawd yelled, his head darting back and forth watching Jackson and Heath part ways in different directions.

“Away from here!” Jackson yelled as he stomped through the wet sand.

“The only thing worse than us sticking together and fighting is us splitting up!” Clawd’s voice became slightly fainter the farther Frankie walked away. “You guys couldn’t last one night alone!”

“I don’t need any of you!” Heath shouted out to the sky, storming back through the trees to where Abbey was resting. “Abbey and I can survive on our own without the rest of you guys making it harder!”

“I didn’t realize having common sense was _making it harder!_ ” Clawd roared at Heath’s departing figure, grabbing Clawdeen as she launched herself in his direction. “Just forget it, Clawdeen. They don’t want our help, we won’t give ‘em our help!”

“If your help was insulting people, then you’re doing a _great_ job!” Frankie screamed at Clawdeen.

“I hope you get caught in the tide and short circuit your whole system!” Clawdeen hollered back at Frankie, watching her march up the coast away from them with Jackson.

“Forget all of you!” Heath bellowed back through the trees.

“You too!” Jackson shot back over his shoulder as he led Frankie in great strides up the coast towards unfamiliar territory. But in all honesty, Frankie didn’t care as long as it got her away from those horrible monsters she thought she could call her friends.

 

~

Deuce jammed the card key to the suite into the door slot and waited for the light to flash green before letting himself in. Setting the now full ice bucket into the mini fridge, he turned to see that the door to his left was wide open, the bathroom within empty. Cleo was finally out of the jacuzzi after what must have been two hours of soaking and stewing. He hadn’t been concerned about her though, he knew she just needed time to herself to think things over. And if he knew Cleo well enough, he knew that she always reflected best when she was pampering herself. She wasn’t using her vanity as a distraction but more of a comfort, something she knew she could always count on and have control over even when it seemed everything that mattered was falling out of her hands. And after all this time, Deuce knew better than to bother her when she went into that zone. She would talk when she was ready.

If the gorgon was being honest with himself though, he would admit that this whole thing was tearing him apart from the inside as much as everyone else. Anyone who knew Deuce well could tell that when he grew uncharacteristically quiet, the snakes on his scalp wilted in depression and his lips pressed into a thin line, they didn’t need to be able to see his eyes to tell that he was really upset. Lagoona placed a lot of the blame of what happened in the storm on herself, how she hadn’t been able to keep them from being separated, and if Deuce were completely insensitive to her feelings he would tell her she was being ridiculous. In his mind, there was only one person to blame for everything that had transpired out on the ocean three days ago, and it wasn’t her.

Moving around the corner to where the bedrooms were, Deuce began to seek out where his girlfriend had gone after her soak. Two of the bedrooms remained sadly unoccupied, the beds still untouched and perfectly made. Both of the suites were meant to be packed with six guests each, yet were now terribly spacious and quiet with only six guests total. He could practically hear Frankie and Clawdeen’s laughter as they conversed at their own vanities, or Heath and Clawd eating everything out of the fridge while Jackson made a snarky remark about it that would make Deuce chuckle. That was what he knew would be happening right now had everything gone smoothly on the boat ride to the Islands, and it was just thinking about it that made him feel worse than ever.

And as he looked out the sliding glass doors that led to the patio balcony, he finally saw her leaning against the railing staring out at the stars in the inky dark blue sky. He pushed the door aside, the audible whoosh making his presence known as he stepped out into the breezy night, her silence at his arrival inviting him to stay and keep her company. Deuce walked up beside her, her amber-scented body spray wafting in his direction as he leaned his arms on the railing next to her. He didn’t dare break the stillness, he knew that by now, but waited for her to speak first.

“You took forever getting that ice.” Cleo inhaled deeply as she brought her hands to her mouth, fingers pressed to her lips as her elbows rested on the railing. As she squeezed her eyes shut, Deuce knew that she wasn’t talking about him getting ice at all. Rather she had wanted him to come back sooner so he could be near her. The royal’s position right now was vulnerable, her rock solid composure beginning to crack under strain, a side to her he was pretty sure only he had ever been permitted to see. He inched closer and brought a strong arm around her in an embrace.

“Cleo...” he breathed lightly as a few tears escaped her closed eyelids and rolled slowly down her cheeks.

“Deuce, I don’t know what to do anymore,” Cleo said in a choked whisper as he gently kissed her temple. “The coast guard hasn’t found a trace of them, Lagoona’s parents haven’t reached us yet, and all this time I can’t help thinking that maybe, just maybe--”

“Cleo, don’t,” Deuce shook his head, hugging her against him as if she were his crutch. “You can’t be thinking that--”

“But what if they really are gone?” Cleo blurted out as a sob escaped her throat, leaning her cheek against Deuce’s chest. “What if this whole search is in vain? What if I’m giving this my all and it doesn’t even matter in the end because they’ve been lost in the storm, swallowed by the sea? I’m frightened for them all, and you know I don’t frighten easily.”

“I know,” Deuce said soothingly, since in truth he felt the same. Those were his teammates lost out there, Clawd and Heath, he felt responsible for them. Jackson was his beast friend despite their contrasting popularity statuses, and Frankie was almost like a sister to him. He would be surprised if Cleo wasn’t hiding fears similar to his, yet her determination to lead the search kept her from revealing this to the others. “Listen,” he said, turning her around so she was facing him with a devastated expression, “you’re right. You have been giving this your all. And I know you wouldn’t waste your time and energy doing this if you didn’t know deep down that they’re out there somewhere waiting to be found. You never do unless you know you’ll prevail, Cleo, and it’s giving us hope. It’s keeping the faith alive in all of us, even if you don’t always feel it in yourself.”

“Deuce,” Cleo murmured, bringing her arms around his waist to return his embrace, “You always seem to know exactly what to say.”

“Besides,” Deuce’s shoulders hunched forward slightly as if all the hope he’d spoken of had drained out of him, “you’re not the one who should be leading the search. I should.”

“Why?” Cleo pulled back a bit to glance up at her reflection in Deuce’s dark shades. “No offense Deucey, but I’m much more qualified than you when it comes to matters of leadership.”

“Because it’s my fault,” Deuce finally said, a lump hardening in his throat once he’d said the words aloud at last. “It was because of that dumb race to save my pride that this all happened in the first place.”

“But it wasn’t--”

“Yeah it was, Cleo,” Deuce’s voice grew louder. “At least if we took your father’s cruise ship we would’ve all been together. Now half of us are lost in the middle of who knows where, the rest of us feeling tired and afraid and helpless, and when it all boils down to it, none of this would’ve happened if we had just done everything the way we first planned it. I should’ve listened to you because you know best! You always know best! So go ahead and tell me that--!”

“ _Stop it,_ ” Cleo said in the most commanding tone of comfort she could muster. She had brought her arms up around the gorgon’s neck and held him as tightly as she could while he buried his face in her gold-highlighted hair. “Stop that, Deuce.”

“I could’ve saved us if I’d just taken the storm seriously,” Deuce sniffed, his voice muffled. “I could’ve gotten us out of there sooner if I’d just listened to Lagoona, I could’ve--”

“There was nothing you could have done,” Cleo shook her head, stroking his scalp gently. “There was no way you could have avoided that storm, and there was no way you could have assumed control once it struck. You did the best you could, Deuce, even better than I could have. And you know I never say that lightly.” She kept him secure in her arms for several moments until he stepped back to look down at her. Cleo was sure his eyes were red if she could only gaze into them, and brought a soft kiss tenderly to his lips. “It’s not your fault this happened, believe me when I say that.”

Deuce could only nod slightly, keeping her hands held in his, “Sorry...I just can’t help blaming myself.”

“We all have at some point, I assure you,” Cleo nodded understandingly. “Lagoona, Ghoulia, poor Draculaura--” She was cut off as someone knocked on the sliding door that had been left open slightly. A flash of deep red hair came into view as Operetta stuck her head out, and Cleo’s face hardened. “Well, _almost_ all of us have.”

“Is this a bad time?” the phantom asked, eyeing the affectionate position the couple was standing in.

“No,” Deuce said at the same time Cleo said, “Yes.” The princess’ eyes flashed dangerously at Deuce, who muttered under his breath, “Give her a break, Cleo.”

“I won’t be long, I promise,” Operetta stepped through the doorway once Deuce had invited her in, looking down at her wringing hands in front of her. “I just want you to hear me out.”

“You have five minutes,” Cleo relented, folding her arms across her chest as she stood up straighter.

“I’ve been givin’ this a lotta thought,” Operetta said. “What you said, and what Lagoona said about takin’ a breather to think things over, and I did. And well, I feel like I owe you an apology.”

“Yes, you do,” Cleo snapped, Deuce nudged her lightly.

“It wasn’t right of me to say what I said, about you always doin’ things just to seek attention,” Operetta went on, looking thoroughly crestfallen. “To be honest, I’d say you’re the one keepin’ the most calm here out of all of us. You’ve got a cool head on your shoulders, Cleo, and you’re awful good at rallyin’ troops when you apply yourself. I admire that in a ghoul. Ya’ll got the makings of a solid leader, and whatever you decide our next move is gonna be, I’ll do whatever you want me to do to help.”

Deuce glanced nervously from his girlfriend to Operetta after the phantom had said her piece, waiting for a response. He’d watched Cleo’s stern face relax over the course of Operetta’s apology. She now wore a slight smile and Deuce knew she was logging away that comment about her being a good leader. After several silent moments, the mummy held out her hand.

“I accept your apology,” Cleo said in a diplomatic voice that suggested they had just signed a peace treaty over a civil war rather than a trivial argument. “And when tomorrow comes, I expect you to comply with any orders I give concerning our plan.”

“Consider it done,” Operetta grasped Cleo’s hand firmly and shook it a bit harder than the princess was expecting. “I’ll be on my way then, ya’ll can get back to whatever it was you were doin’.”

“Well, that worked out better than I expected,” Deuce smirked at Cleo once Operetta had ducked back into the suite out of earshot. “No bloodshed or anything.”

“She thinks I’m a good leader,” Cleo’s smile grew wider, her eyes distant. “Take that, Nefera. Unlike you, _I_ have the support of my subjects.”

“You're our rock, babe,” Deuce said, taking her hand in his again and pressing his lips to it.

“Oh Deuce,” Cleo cooed, covering his hand with hers. “I know.”

 

~

“I think she might finally get a full night’s sleep tonight,” Lagoona said as quietly as she could to Ghoulia. Unfolding an extra warm blanket, she brought it up to cover Draculaura who had fallen asleep in Ghoulia’s suite bed. The zombie, however, had gladly relinquished it to her emotionally drained friend. “Poor thing’s been a mess since we got here.”

Ghoulia slowly motioned for Lagoona to come closer, once she’d gotten the vampire tucked in, and moaned quietly pointing to her.

“Me? Oh love, don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” Ghoulia moaned a little more intently, obviously not convinced, and Lagoona gave in. “Alright, I haven’t been sleeping well at all to be perfectly honest. I’m just so worried that my folks might not get here in time to be of any help. And…” The sea monster looked around quickly, making sure no one was lurking in the doorway of their suite. “Ghoulia dear, can you keep a secret?”

The zombie nodded but her eyebrows knitted in concern, as if she didn’t like where this was going.

“Here’s the plan I’ve come up with,” Lagoona said, taking her by the hands and pulling her towards the sliding doors to the balcony so Draculaura wouldn’t wake up and overhear them. “If I don’t hear back from my parents by tomorrow night, I’m gonna...you know, go it alone.”

Ghoulia’s eyes widened behind her white-framed oval glasses and she shook her head, a groan indicating her disapproval.

“I know it’s risky,” Lagoona replied, squeezing her hands tighter. “I know it’s dangerous for even a monster like me to swim out into open water on her own. But all of this is at least partially my responsibility, nobody can deny that. And I need to do my part in making this right.” She looked the zombie straight in the eyes, “You can’t tell anyone about this, especially not Cleo. Promise me.”

Ghoulia looked down at their clasped hands and squeezed back, showing her support even though she disapproved of her rather rash decision. Very slowly and haltingly, she nodded.

“Thank you, Ghoulia,” Lagoona pulled her in for a hug, grateful for her unwavering friendship and loyalty. “I’m going to make this right and get everyone home safe again. I...I _have_ to.”

 

~

He’d been walking so long that he must have reached the other side of the island by now, which proved to be a lot bigger than he originally thought. When Jackson thought about it, they really had only occupied a tiny fraction of this vast piece of land out on the ocean, and they had developed a sort of familiarity with that portion alone. Now he had no idea where they were and only a vague idea how to get back. Stopping to catch his breath, he looked beside him and saw Frankie trailing along, having removed her four-inch wedged sandals from her feet and been carrying them by the straps.

“Where are we?” she asked blankly, peering around and barely able to keep her eyes open.

“Who knows?” Jackson replied equally emotionlessly, stretching into a squat position. “What time is it?”

“No idea,” Frankie mumbled, leaning over to stretch out her back. It had been dark for what seemed like hours which led Jackson to believe that it must be very early in the morning. “I feel like we should go back and grab some food, I’m starving.”

“I am _not_ going back there,” Jackson said in sudden menace. “Heath doesn’t want me around, then I won’t be around.” He paused, running a hand through his hair and sighing deeply. “I can’t believe he called me--”

“A waste of space?” Frankie recalled, shaking her head. “I know, I heard him. I didn’t think he could ever say something that cruel.”

“He’s picked on me my entire life for being a normie,” Jackson said in a depressed tone, standing back up again. “I usually brush it off, but lately it’s been bothering me even more because I’m clearly _not_ a normie. Now apparently I’ve been demoted to ‘waste of space.’ I mean I’ve been doing my best, helping out in any way I can! But because I’m not all monster I have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously!”

“I know how that is,” Frankie said bitterly, wrapping her arms around herself in the chilly air, and Jackson wished he had a jacket to offer her. “I had fifteen years of knowledge crammed into my brain over the course of two weeks, and ever since then I’ve been working each day just trying to function like a normal teenage ghoul. Well, as normal as I can anyway.” She looked down at her stitched legs and felt her neck bolts in a self-conscious manner Jackson had rarely seen in her.

“Clawdeen was way out of line,” Jackson said. “She shouldn’t have said those things about you.”

“I had told her that privately,” Frankie said quietly but no less angrily, still keeping her head lowered. “And she just--I was just being honest with her, I didn’t mean it to sound insulting!”

“She probably took it that way,” Jackson muttered, thinking about Clawd and how he’d reacted similarly. “They’re probably thinking the same thing about us.”

“I didn’t purposely try to hurt Clawdeen’s feelings the way she hurt mine!” Frankie burst out, swiping at her nose with her wrist. “I thought she was my beastie and I could count on her.”

“You're preaching to the choir,” Jackson said. “The people closest to us are the ones that can hurt us the worst.” He turned to look out at the water and noticed the morning sunlight starting to peek through the evening clouds. “Check it out,” he pointed over Frankie’s shoulder, and she turned to see the faint pink rays slowly grow to orange, creating a heavenly glowing outline around the navy clouds. Jackson stood directly behind her, breathing in her scent hidden beneath four days of sweat and seawater as her long hair blew against his face.

After a couple moments, Frankie groaned and picked up her shoes from the sand again, “I can’t even enjoy watching the sunrise with you, I’m so mad at her! And Heath and Clawd! They didn’t even try and come after us, they just let us go!”

“Seriously, I don’t even care if I ever see that idiot flame-haired cousin of mine again after all this,” Jackson seethed, leading her further down the coast once they had finished resting. Suddenly he stopped again, holding out an arm for Frankie so she wouldn’t walk into him. A low rumbling sound came from the sky directly above them. “Do you hear that?”

“It sounds like…” Frankie trailed off, then gasped out loud and grabbed Jackson’s hand in excitement. He could see it too, the low-flying helicopter making its rounds several thousand feet above where they stood. All exhaustion was pushed aside, every inkling that they were tired from walking along the coast all night left in the dust as Jackson and Frankie began screaming and waving up at the helicopter hovering, they were sure, low enough to be able to see the two teenagers trying to flag them down. Their shouts grew louder and less discernible as it kept speeding forward, further and further away from them, until at last it disappeared into the fading evening clouds. Jackson let his arms fall, his face shocked still. It didn’t notice them. Nothing suggested that the copter pilot had heard or even seen them.

“ _What?_ ” Frankie exhaled in a cracked voice strained from screaming, disbelief etched on her face.

“He didn’t even see us,” Jackson said hoarsely, breathing heavily through his nostrils in indignation and a crushing feeling of dejection. “How...how is that even possible? How could it not see us at all?!” He was so focused on the futility of it all that he barely noticed the small delicate hand leave his grasp, hardly heard the lone sob release from her. But Jackson did see her shadow suddenly dart up the coast away from him, and he whipped around to see her hair flying behind her as she rushed up on the dry sand.

“Frankie!” he called after her, panting as he ran upward following her towards the inland. “Frankie, wait!” Jackson watched her disappear behind a large boulder that easily dwarfed the one near their camp. Drawing closer to it, he rounded the corner and saw her curled up against its base, hugging her knees to her chest with her face buried in her arms. He slowly approached and knelt beside her, and now he could see her shoulders quaking. “Hey…” he began, hearing her crying softly into her knees, and he brought a hand up to stroke through her hair. “Frankie...don’t cry, it’ll be fine.”

Frankie shook her head, raising it just enough to free her mouth so she could speak. “Clawdeen was right,” she choked back sobs. “I mean, what if she knew all along? Maybe she and Clawd were trying to help us survive because...because they don’t think we’ll ever be found. _Ever._ ” She lifted her head up further, and Jackson’s heart squeezed painfully when he saw thick salty tear tracks running the length of her face. “I thought that maybe if we just kept pushing through, everything would work out in the end. But now we can’t even flag down a plane and gets its attention.” She turned her grief-stricken face towards him, “We’re never getting out of here. This nightmare is only going to get worse. And if we never get out of here, then that means Abbey--” Her face scrunched into pure anguish, fresh tears wetting the tracks down her cheeks. “Abbey doesn’t have a chance, does she?”

 _"Shhh…”_ Jackson whispered gently as Frankie hid her face back in her knees and wept harder. He had moved himself even closer to her and pressed his forehead against her temple so he could speak softly into her ear. He wasn’t used to having to be the brave one, not with Frankie around. She was the one who picked everyone back up when things looked hopeless, who could easily persuade change for the better, who could march with her head held high through a school full of prejudiced normies to save his life. But now she found herself facing the deadest of dead ends, and could only hold up under the gravity of that tribulation for so long until she completely broke down. He reached over and took her hand, which she latched onto in a death grip without even looking up, crushing his fingers numb. But Jackson didn’t care. Right now, that was what she needed.

“It’s okay to be scared now,” he said, his arm firm and steadfast around her quivering shoulders. “I am too, we all are.”

“I’ve been scared this whole time,” Frankie confessed, her face turned towards him while her head still rested on her arms. “Ever since we found you underneath all that debris when we first crashed here, I haven’t _stopped_ being scared. I knew then that this was bigger than anything we ever faced before. That there was a possibility that one of us, or even all of us, might never make it home again.”

“I’m here, thanks to you,” Jackson assured her, returning the grip she had his hand in. “And just because this is the biggest thing we’ve ever faced doesn’t mean we’ll lose. It just means we have to try harder. But we’ll find a way out of this like we always do.” He wasn’t even sure if he believed everything he was telling her, but white lies about happy endings seemed to be all he could do to lift Frankie from this heartbreaking mindset she’d fallen into. He simply couldn’t stand to see her like this, staring at him in vacant despair, tears leaking steadily from her eyes. “Abbey’s gonna be fine,” he found himself saying, “We’re all gonna be fine. I promise.”

Frankie looked at him for a few moments, her two-toned eyes boring into his blue ones behind his dirty cracked glasses, before unraveling herself from her position and flinging her arms around Jackson’s neck. It caught him off guard to the point where he nearly fell over backwards, but he returned the embrace just as hard as she clung to him. “Thank you,” she said in a tight, emotional voice muffled in his neck, “for staying with me.”

“Did you really think I’d leave you out here all alone?” Jackson asked, closing his eyes and letting her cry out the rest of her tears on his shoulder. To say he had a monster crush on her would be an understatement. In his seventeen years of life, Jackson had rarely met girls that were stunningly beautiful on the outside while pure and innocent yet resourceful hearts beat on their insides. Frankie was both, every inch of her was both, every word she spoke was both, and he never wanted to let that special unique spirit in this ghoul go. “I mean it. I’d never leave you, Frankie. Not as long as you needed me.” She relaxed in his arms, and he took that as a sign that he’d said the right thing.

“Sorry,” Frankie said softly as she pulled back a while later. Jackson wasn’t sure if she was saying that for crying all over him or for her bolts sparking against him during her intense emotional state. Either way, she didn’t need to apologize. “I really needed to get that out of my system.”

“Don’t worry about it, my shoulder’s always here for you,” he said, reaching up to brush away a lock of hair plastered to her cheek from dried tears. He looked down and realized she was still holding onto his hand even after they broke apart.

“So,” Frankie began slowly, clearing her throat, “should we think about going back to try and make peace with the others?” Jackson’s shoulders stiffened. He’d thought about it all right, but he really didn’t want to. Heath’s stubborn nature prone to fire elementals would keep him from apologizing for what he said for a long time, if ever. And Jackson himself didn’t really have any intention of apologizing until he got one from Heath. But Frankie’s forgiving nature most likely made her want to head back and see if Clawdeen was in a regretful state of mind.

“Why don’t we walk down to that cone-shaped boulder,” he pointed a quite a few yards away, “and then turn around and casually make our way back?”

Frankie smiled, “You’re not ready to forgive Heath yet, are you?”

“Are you ready to forgive Clawdeen yet?” Jackson raised his eyebrows at her. She shrugged lightly and he stood to help her to her feet. He could tell she was really tired in how she leaned against him to stand, and figured they were both ready for a lengthy nap in the very near future. Moving much slower than before, they made their way back to the coast and continued their trek along the wet sand. The sun was almost fully up now, the clouds dispersed to reveal another clear blue day, which was probably not good news for Abbey back at their camp. The temperature had risen considerably as well, making him even more nervous since he had sort of promised Frankie that their ill-fallen yeti friend would pull through.

Until all of a sudden, all doubts and fears disapparated from his mind. At the sight of what lay in the sand several feet away, it suddenly seemed like the sun was at last _figuratively_ coming up. A huge tree trunk had fallen over, Jackson guessed from the storms on their first day there. This particular tree trunk had split almost completely in half, and an idea formed in Jackson’s mind. A constructive idea involving a raft, a floatation device of some kind, and the possibility of a foolproof way to leave this nightmare of an island behind them forever.

“This is it!” Jackson cried out, smacking his hands to his head as he laughed out loud, relief washing over him like a tidal wave. “This is the solution! I just need the guys to help and it’ll take some time, but we can totally pull this off! Frankie, look at this!”

Silence. Puzzled, Jackson whirled around, “Frankie?” His eyes traveled downward to the sand where the tide washed in and out, and his heart stopped completely for a few moments. Or an hour. He honestly couldn’t tell. All he could grasp was the immediacy of what was in front of him. Frankie, who had collapsed face down in the sand, laying sprawled out completely and utterly still.

_“Frankie!”_

 


	5. Chapter 5

“What do you mean you’ve done all you can?!” The magnified shriek of the outraged Egyptian princess echoed across the crowded beach, making several monsters sunbathing on the coast turn and stare in their direction. The Cyclops coast guard captain had approached her when the group went down from the hotel to the beach early the next morning to deliver the less than satisfying news.

“I’m sorry Miss de Nile, but absolutely nothing besides floating bits of boat wreckage were found in the area you pointed us in,” the captain shook his head.

“Then check again,” Cleo demanded through gritted teeth.

“We’ve scoured the area on five separate search runs,” the captain said calmly, wary of Cleo’s simmering wrath beneath her barely composed exterior. “Not a trace of unlife was found as far as we could see.”

“So you’re saying that they probably…” Deuce’s voice trailed off, his face falling into despair.

“It doesn’t look like good news,” the captain said solemnly, looking to each of them individually. “I’m sorry.” And without a word, he turned and went back to his station while Cleo stared after him in absolute frozen shock. For what seemed like ages, the six of them stood in silence with barely a breath passing between them. Deuce kept his eyes shut as he removed his sunglasses and scrubbed them dry, Operetta’s lips curled into an indignant sneer that rivaled Cleo’s, Draculaura’s eyes swam with tears and Lagoona’s gaze moved out to the ocean in deep contemplation.

Ghoulia was a monster of few words, as all zombies like her were. Always the practical thinker, she had been silently taking note of every step of their journey, every endeavour her beast friend Cleo made to find the lost group. She rarely showed emotion, but to see Cleo’s tireless efforts amount to nothing made her shed a few tears of remorse. Removing her glasses, she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand before moving away from the group to take up her laptop left sitting on a boulder in the sand. One thing the captain said had stuck out to her. They hadn’t found one trace of the other group in five searches of the area. If the others had indeed been annihilated in the storm, wouldn’t remains of some sort have been found? It caused her great pain to imagine her friends Frankie, Clawdeen and Abbey wiped out in the shipwreck, but realistically she had never ruled out the possibility that it could be true. But still…

Opening up the screen, she brought up the tabs left open on her internet browser and began clicking through the pictures and satellite videos in her web searches. On her own, she had managed to pinpoint the exact location the storm had hit and gotten the two boats separated. In reading weather reports following the incident, the hurricane they had gotten caught up in turned out to be, what monsters with a lesser vocabulary would call, ‘a real doozy.’ In looking at the area herself, it appeared that the coast guard was correct. There was nowhere the others could have crashed, no islands of any kind around that section of sea. She sighed deeply, a little moan escaping her. _Thanks for installing the satellite tracker, Slo Mo,_ she thought of her boyfriend back home in Salem who often bought her new software to expand her computer linguistics. _Unfortunately, it didn’t help much._

“No,” Operetta’s voice carried over from where the rest of them gathered. “That can’t just be it. We’re not just gonna roll over and give up on them. Cleo, what do we do?”

“Come with me,” Cleo seized Operetta by the wrist and pulled her towards the coast guard station.

“Where are they going?” Draculaura asked, shaking her head hopelessly in their direction.

“To put up a fight,” Deuce answered with near certainty. “I better go make sure they don’t get us banned from the Scaribbean altogether.”

Ghoulia glanced up from her screen to see Deuce head up the beach to follow Cleo and Operetta. Out the corner of her eye, Lagoona had remained staring out at the sea, crossing her arms over her chest as if she were cold when Draculaura approached her.

“I suppose it’s up to your parents now, isn’t it?” the petite vampire said, opening her pink and black parasol to shield herself from the sunrise, twirling the handle nervously in her hands.

“Yeah,” Lagoona breathed distractedly, not taking her eyes off the horizon line. “They’re our only hope at this point.”

“That’s right. They’re our _only_ hope.” Draculaura’s voice had lost the trembling whimper it had adopted over the past couple of days, solidifying itself into a stance of finality, the end of an absent argument. It caused Lagoona to turn her eyes from the sea for the first time and gaze down at her quizzically.

“What’re you playin’ at?”

“I wasn’t asleep last night. I heard what you said.”

The laptop almost slid from Ghoulia’s lap in surprise, but she managed to catch it before it hit the sand. Like a tennis match, her stare traveled between the sea monster and the vampire in rapt attention.

“Draculaura--”

“Don’t do it.”

“Draculaura, listen to me--”

“No, you listen to me.” Lagoona stepped back, intimidated by Draculaura’s bared fangs even though the sea monster stood a full head taller than her. “I forbid you to go out there. It will not do anyone any good. Not us, not the group from Clawd’s boat, and especially not you. The only reason you’re even attempting this is because you think you are at fault, and you’re not.”

“You don’t know a danged thing about what’s goin’ through my head,” Lagoona regained her stance, moving toe-to-toe with her. “Don’t you think I haven’t thought all of our options through? Do you think I made this decision lightly? If I don’t go out there alone, then we all go out there together and risk everyone’s skin. I can’t let that happen and _that’s_ why I’m going.”

“Do you really believe so little of yourself that you think you’re expendable, Lagoona?!” Draculaura cried out in despair, as if a physical pain had cut through her heart. “I’ve already lost my boyfriend and my two beast friends, six monsters I care for deeply. I cannot _bear_ the thought of losing another!”

“You won’t lose me, none of you will,” Lagoona’s voice softened. “But I am goin’ out there and I’m not coming back until I find them.”

The zombie wanted to step between them, break up their argument somehow. But the truth was she agreed with Draculaura and didn’t want Lagoona to be angry with her, not after she had shown such appreciation for Ghoulia’s support. In feeling torn, she returned her gaze to her laptop screen and pulled up a new search tab to continue her fruitless efforts.

“What’s going on over here?!” Deuce called as he returned with Cleo and Operetta in tow, pulling his girlfriend by the arm away from the coast guard.

“Deuce, let go of me this instant!” Cleo shouted out, trying to pry herself from his grip. “I’m trying to get us arranged for a two-boat search party!”

“What you’re trying to arrange is getting us all kicked out of the Scaribbean Islands for unlife,” Deuce said firmly as Operetta rolled her eyes.

“Cleo, Lagoona is planning to swim out on her own to search for them!” Draculaura cried, pointing dramatically to Lagoona, whose face twisted into fury at her.

“What?” Cleo stopped struggling at this new piece of information and whipped her head around at Lagoona, stunned. “Absolutely not.”

“Either we all go or none of us go,” Operetta agreed, her hands on her hips as she stared down Lagoona as well.

“This is my fight, not yours!” Lagoona’s lips trembled along with her voice.

“It’s everyone’s fight!” Deuce yelled out as he let go of Cleo, unable to stand this anymore. “Who was at the helm, Lagoona?! Last I checked it wasn’t you!”

“Deuce, not this again,” Cleo warned.

“It’s four against one!” Draculaura shot at Lagoona, who looked on the verge of tears. “You’re not going!”

Their voices faded as Ghoulia read deeper and deeper into the article she had come across. The website _Divinity_ was a companion to _The Oracle_ , dedicated to the supernatural and unexplained phenomena of the monster world. Frankie subscribed to the magazine for the horrorscopes and columns about friendship and romantic advice, giving Ghoulia the opportunity to leaf through her copies out of mild interest. Most of it was cringeworthy, obvious false stories to stir fantastical beliefs in the minds of young monsters. But since their situation was shaping up to be a rather supernatural one, six monsters disappearing without a trace, it couldn’t hurt to look at the far more credible sister site. What she read was the story that had surfaced of a legendary island whose tale predated Skull Shores’ by centuries. This mass of land was a complete enigma, known primarily for its ability to disappear and reappear with no rhyme or reason to its pattern.

She reread it several careful times to make sure, but the zombie’s weary eyes were not mistaken. _An island known to disappear and reappear at random…_ And what proved its trustworthiness were the accounts of those who had seen it over the course of many years. Every one of them said that the island’s location was a mere twenty miles off the course to the Scaribbean Islands.

As the animosity among the arguing group reached a peak, Ghoulia felt a stirring of hope for the first time in four days. With a few clicks of her laptop mouse, she had made more headway than the entirety of the acclaimed Scaribbean Islands’ coast guard. And she could not have been prouder of herself.

 

~

Clawd began sprinting the moment his ears perked up, his pawed feet kicking up sand into his face that he shook away impatiently. He didn’t need to second guess it or stop to wonder who was yelling so desperately. All he needed was the first cry for help to reach his sharp ears before he shot off like a cannon down the unfamiliar coast of the island. He had a vague idea of where he was headed, and when he picked up on Jackson’s and Frankie’s scents with his perceptive tracking nose he knew for sure. They had headed in this direction the night before, and all he knew was that somehow something had gone horribly wrong.

The washed up rocks on the beach grew larger, taller and more abundant the farther he ran as he reached the complete opposite side of the island from where their camp was set up. What he saw made him skid to a halt in horror. _Oh no,_ he thought despairingly as he watched Jackson walk vigorously towards him. _No...this can’t be happening again._ This thought surfaced when he saw the half normie was carrying a limp and unmoving Frankie in his arms. “What happened?” he finally voiced aloud, his face dripping with sweat.

“She passed out,” Jackson breathed heavily in panic, “she just collapsed, no warning or anything, it just happened.”

“Okay okay, just calm down, let me see her.” Clawd moved closer to examine Frankie, her arms dangling loosely at her side, her eyes closed, her lips slightly parted, everything about her completely relaxed and devoid of life. “Alright, she is breathing,” he noted the slight rise and fall of her chest, the mint green hue still prominent in her face.

“But she’s not responsive, at all.” Jackson’s eyebrows creased in worry, short breaths coming in gasps. “I think her battery’s draining charge, _fast._ ”

“What?! Why now?!” Clawd’s eyes widened, his heart dropping into his stomach. “I know Frankie, she has to do a full recharge almost every night. How did this not happen sooner?” His gaze snapped up to meet Jackson’s, the answer coming to him at the exact moment Jackson voiced it aloud. _“The lightning storm.”_

“From our first night here,” Jackson nodded, his voice quivering in fear. “That’s why she stayed on the shore, to soak up the electricity in the air. It bought her some time. Now she’s on the very last dregs of that charge.”

“And what happens when her battery dies completely?”

Jackson paused pregnantly. “It can’t be anything good, and I don’t wanna wait to find out.”

“C’mon, I’ll take you back to where Clawdeen and I are,” Clawd said, holding out his arms. “Let me, I can run and carry her at the same time.” Jackson hesitated for a second before handing her over.

“Be careful,” he said softly as Clawd gingerly took hold of Frankie, mindful of her head as it threatened to flop backwards. Luckily the muscular alpha wolf could in fact run while carrying her princess style. She was much lighter than Abbey, yet her rather tall height made supporting her more difficult than lifting up someone like Draculaura. But all of that was a blur in his mind as he and Jackson sprinted further inland closer to the camp. All that mattered now was getting Frankie someplace safe. _Two down...four to go,_ Clawd thought despondently. When was this going to end?

“What now?!” Clawdeen barked as she saw her brother’s and Jackson’s heads towering over the bushes, making their way towards her. The night before, she and Clawd had created another makeshift shelter separate from Heath’s and Abbey’s, and she lay spread out in a bed of leaves. “What’s _he_ doing here?”

“Clawdeen, we’re calling a ceasefire.” He pushed past the bushes concealing them from each other, and Clawdeen’s hands flew to her mouth when she saw who was in her brother’s arms.

“Oh my ghoul, what happened?” she asked hushedly, her voice cracking as she scrambled to her feet.

“Just lay her down, I’ll explain in a minute,” Jackson said hastily, and Clawdeen jumped aside so the boys could lay Frankie down comfortably, her long hair fanned out underneath her.

“Frankie?” Clawdeen called out, shaking her shoulders. “Frankie c’mon, wake up!”

“It’s no use, I tried,” Jackson said, smoothing Frankie’s hair down. “She's completely unresponsive.” He flew through the details about Frankie’s lack of electricity flowing through her system, which far from alleviated Clawdeen’s fears.

“So her battery’s just been draining this whole time and it never crossed _any_ of our minds?!” She sounded angry at the others, but Clawd knew she was just as angry at herself.

“It should have,” he said dismally, closing his eyes. “We were so busy thinking about Abbey and making the fire and finding food...no, there’s no excuse. We were supposed to look out for each other and Frankie’s proof that we failed.”

“And she was so busy looking out for everyone else,” Jackson swallowed hard, “that she wasn’t even thinking about herself.” In seeing Jackson gaze so lovingly into Frankie’s expressionless face, his hand cupping the back of her head, Clawd felt a surge of loneliness take over his heart. He missed Draculaura so much, and was now facing the possibility that he might never see her again. But at the same time he felt relieved that she was far away from this deserted island, safe and healthy and out of harm’s way. He couldn’t imagine being in Jackson’s position right now, or Heath’s. It hurt far too much to even think about.

“Hang on,” Clawdeen said suddenly, reaching up to unhook a gold earring from her ear. “Let me try this.” Slowly, she moved the metal earring close to Frankie’s right neck bolt.

“Are you crazy?” Jackson seized her by the wrist before she got any closer.

“It won’t help, but it might buy us a couple of minutes!” Clawdeen hissed at him, and he let go as she shakily let the gold metal make contact. She winced as a surge shocked through her, but her prediction was right. Frankie’s eyelids lifted slightly.

“Where...what happened…?”

“We’re with Clawdeen and Clawd,” Jackson said, the worry lines leaving his forehead for the first time that morning. “Oh Frankie…” She was struggling to stay conscious, they could all tell.

“Frankie, your battery is dangerously low,” Clawd said, kneeling down beside her. “You haven’t been able to charge yourself and this is the consequence.”

“Frankie,” Jackson said urgently as her eyes started to fall closed again, but she was roused by his plea. “What happens when your battery dies?”

She paused, her mouth opening slightly. “I...can’t let that...happen.”

“Why not?” Clawdeen asked, moving closer and clutching Frankie’s shoulder.

Her speech was becoming more slurred, but every single one of them caught the next words that left her lips. “Dad says...I could...lapse...into a permanent...coma.”

“No,” Clawd breathed hushedly as Clawdeen and Jackson looked at each other, all three of them numbly dumbstruck.

“Jackson…” Frankie breathed as her eyes closed.

“I’m here,” Jackson said thickly, reaching for her hand. “I’m right here, what is it?”

“I needed to tell you...back there…”

“Frankie?!” Jackson cried out as her face returned to its still, expressionless state. “Frankie, don’t go!”

“Frankie!” Clawdeen held the gold metal up to her neck bolt again.

“No!” Clawd shouted, grabbing her hand and pulling her back from Frankie. “Don’t you dare make her waste any more energy!”

“Frankie, I’m sorry!” Clawdeen shouted in anguish, letting the earring fall from her hand, her lower lip quivering. “I’m sorry about what I said, I didn’t mean it!”

“She knows you didn’t,” Clawd said soothingly as his sister buried her face in her hands and retreated to a corner away from him.

“She’s gone,” Jackson whispered in a slightly choked voice, still clutching desperately to Frankie’s hand. “I can’t get her back.”

“You stay with her,” Clawd said, getting up from the ground. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where’re you going?” Jackson asked.

“To get Heath and Abbey,” Clawd announced, and at that Clawdeen looked up at him as well. “I was right. We’re safer together than apart.” As he turned and ran back through the trees to their original campsite, Clawd felt his protective pack instincts kick in full force. Abbey and Frankie were his responsibility, and he would never forgive himself if anything less than getting them home safe and sound transpired. But that goal was getting further and further away from his hindsight, to the point of almost definite impossibility. What they really needed now was some kind of miracle.

 

~

“Oh for Ra’s sake Ghoulia, what is it?!” Cleo wrenched her arm from Ghoulia’s grip, which was rather strong for a zombie. She had been moaning over and over again trying to get Cleo’s attention, tugging on the loose end of her wrappings urgently. The princess had been so preoccupied with trying to rally a search party and keep Lagoona from venturing out on her own that she hadn’t noticed Ghoulia’s own private project going on under her nose. This had apparently involved conversing with the coast guard for the better part of a few hours and keeping her eyes glued to her laptop rather than partaking in any of the conversation going on with the rest of their group. Not that any of those conversations were going anywhere, it mostly consisted of rehashing things they already knew and worrying about the things they didn’t. Cleo sat down impatiently beside Ghoulia in a deck chair on the beach, looking over her hunched shoulders as she groaned out a hasty synopsis of the article in front of her.

“Wait,” Cleo said slowly, peering closer at the screen, her dark eyes skimming the words quickly. “You’re telling me there’s an island that exists that just happens to disappear and reappear at random, and just happens to be located twenty miles from where the storm hit?” Ghoulia groaned out a _“yes”_ and Cleo sat staring at the screen for several moments taking it all in, as if unable to believe that maybe the answer to all of their problems was _right here._ “Deuce! Draculaura! Everyone come here!”

The remaining four dashed over from a food cart where they’d scarfed down an early dinner and gathered around Cleo and Ghoulia. “What is it?” Draculaura asked, shifting her parasol over to block out the setting sun rays.

“Ghoulia’s found something!” Cleo said elatedly. She explained about the island Ghoulia had read about to the others, who all wore varying expressions in response to this new lead.

“So you think this island is--?”

“Where they landed?” Cleo smiled wide in satisfaction, “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“It makes sense!” Draculaura squealed happily. “That’s why the coast guard couldn’t find them! That’s why nothing except boat remains were found! Because Clawd and the others weren’t destroyed in the wreck, they’re just trapped on this island where no one can see them!”

“Whoa du--lady dude, hang on a sec,” Deuce held up his hands in a timeout. “How do you get all that just from reading a news article?”

“From _Divinity,_ ” Operetta snorted. “That site spouts nothin’ but the biggest loads of hooey I’ve ever heard.”

“Plus the shipwreck’s been in the news, Draculaura’s pop said so,” Lagoona added. “They _would_ publish an article relating to the incident trying to cash in on the potential severity of it, whether the stories were true or not.”

“On the contrary,” Cleo interrupted in a loud, heated tone, “every story they have written about Egyptian artifacts found in the remains of my empire have been one hundred percent accurate, which is more than I can say for the tripe those normie news stations report.”

“And remember a couple years ago, when _Divinity_ posted the legend of a 14th century vampire who refused to join her sisters in biting a royal monster hunter so she could stay in the good graces of the normie she loved?” Every single one of their jaws dropped open as Draculaura raised her hand slowly. “Guilty.”

“Okay okay, so the island exists!” Operetta threw up her hands in defeat. “That’s still not worth gettin’ all excited over!”

“Operetta’s right, I mean how do we know for sure that they’re there?” Deuce asked.

“Like Draculaura said, it makes sense considering the coast guard never found a trace of them in the five times they went out searching,” Cleo reiterated carefully as if speaking to a child.

“So in the five separate times they went out, the island just happened to be invisible every time?!” Operetta shook her head, “I’m sorry, but I got a hard time buyin’ that.”

“And how ‘random’ are we talking here?” Lagoona said. “That makes it sound like it could disappear then reappear in a couple of hours, then disappear and not reappear again for another century or something!”

Ghoulia mumbled incoherently to which Cleo nodded, “I agree. I think it’s worth a shot. Once Ghoulia triangulates its location, we can set out in that direction.”

“Hold it!” Deuce held up his palms again more firmly, silencing all of them. “I’m not going on a wild goose chase to some island that may or may not be there, that may or may not have our friends waiting for us on it.”

“I say it’s too _long_ of a shot to risk,” Operetta maintained, standing with Deuce.

“Fine, you don’t have to go!” Cleo stomped her heel into the sand. “Ghoulia, Draculaura and I will go by ourselves!”

“No one is goin’ anywhere by themselves, and that includes _you,_ sugar!” Operetta flung at Lagoona, who crossed her arms tightly over her chest and looked away. “I say we take a vote and unless it’s unanimous--!” She was cut off abruptly by the muffled sound of an organ music ringtone coming from the phone on top of Draculaura’s handbag, and everyone’s heads whipped in its direction.

“It’s Father!” Draculaura snatched up the phone, holding it tightly in her hands. “He promised he wouldn’t call unless he had news!”

“Give it to me, please!” Lagoona grabbed the phone with shaking hands and answered it, bringing her voice down to as calm of a tone as she could. “Count D? It’s Lagoona Blue. Did my parents--?” She pressed the phone to her ear as she listened intently, the others watching her with baited breath, their eyes fixated on her facial expression in an attempt to read it. After a few minutes, the sea monster sunk down onto the deck chair with her hand pressed to her lips. She nodded rapidly as tears filled her eyes, and Cleo grabbed Deuce’s hand and squeezed hard. “Yes…” Lagoona choked out, “yes, I understand…” Every worst possible scenario flew through the group’s collective thoughts, all stemming from the only piece of news that could make Lagoona react like this. Six of their friends were not coming back to them. Ever again.

“Thank you Count D, thank you for everything.” Lagoona disconnected the line before breaking into tears, swiping at her already moist cheeks. Cleo moved to Draculaura, who was weeping vocally into her hands, and wrapped her in a comforting embrace while Operetta sat beside Lagoona and rested her arm around her shoulders. And at that moment, Lagoona raised her head to glance at them all, doing the one thing they certainly did not expect at a time like this: She broke into a smile as the last words they expected to hear left her lips.

_“They found them.”_

_“What?!”_ Five cries rose from their group, Cleo’s and Draculaura’s heads snapping up in shock.

“Found them?” Deuce repeated, unable to believe his ears. “Alive or--?”

“Of course ‘alive’!” Lagoona actually laughed out loud, throwing her arms around Operetta in celebration. “Ghoulia you were right, you were right about the island!” The zombie’s lips split into a wide grin as Cleo ran to hug her tightly.

“Wait, what exactly did Father say?” Draculaura asked, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.

“My folks knew about that island, they suspected it when your dad told them where the storm occurred,” Lagoona explained. “So they’ve been scouring the area underwater for the past day or so waiting for the island to appear, and early this afternoon…” She latched hands with Draculaura, beaming. “It did, _and_ they saw Clawd running along the coast!”

“Clawd! Are they sure it was him?!”

“Positive!” Lagoona nodded and the vampire flung her arms around her, her tears now those of joy.

“They’re okay!” Deuce shouted in triumph. “We know where they are!” He was interrupted by Cleo, who cupped his face in her hands and kissed him fiercely.

“That’s for not giving up on me,” Cleo said softly as she pulled back, glancing around at the others as they all cheered and hugged in jubilation. Thanks to Ghoulia and Lagoona’s parents, they were several steps closer to ending this ordeal, for themselves and those they had yet to find, once and for all.

 

~

“Hey, you’re back,” Clawdeen said in relief as Clawd and Heath emerged from the trees, returning several hours later from further down the coast where their bonfire still raged on. The boys struggled to support Abbey who was faint from the humidity on the journey there, and Heath was seriously beginning to worry. Abbey’s skin was rapidly losing its blue color, a greyish tint in its place, her skin taking on a wet oily texture similar to Lagoona’s and Gil’s. But even so, she worked to bring herself back to awareness whenever she found the strength, even though Heath would constantly advise her not to, chilly temperature or not. However, Clawd had explained to him about the second crisis on their hands and insisted that they get Abbey to the new shelter location. He knew he was a guy and he was supposed to be strong, but when he saw Frankie lying threateningly still under the canopy, Heath felt real fear grip at him for the first time since Abbey told him about her broken charm.

“How is she?” Heath asked, laying Abbey down a little ways from the others to give her some air. It was the best he could do for her right now until night fell, his gaze instead turning to Frankie like everyone else’s.

“No change, which is good I guess,” Clawdeen said in a monotone that suggested she was fighting to maintain composure. “She hasn’t woken up at all.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Heath said quietly, pulling Clawdeen into a hug as she sniffled lightly into his shoulder. “This is Frankie we’re talking about, she can pull through anything.”

“Don’t say things like that if you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Heath looked up to meet Jackson’s cold stare, seeing his jaw set angrily. The argument, everything he’d said from the previous night came flooding back to him in one fell swoop. He certainly couldn’t blame Jackson for talking to him like that.

“Jackson, bro, if it makes you feel any better I--”

“Save it,” Jackson sneered before returning his gaze to Frankie, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “I don’t have the energy to fight right now.”

“I’m not trying to fi--!”

“Heath, cool it,” Clawd said in an undertone, holding up his hand. “Just let him be.” The fire elemental sighed heavily, shifting back over so he could keep an eye on Abbey’s steadily worsening condition. Did his cousin really think he didn’t know how he felt? That he knew exactly what was going through his mind right now? Because it was true, he knew the helplessness and pain that came with feeling as though you'd lost someone before you even really had them.

“Poor Abbey...she looks awful, Heath,” Clawdeen shook her head sadly. “How long's she been pale like this?”

“Since this morning when I woke up,” Heath said seriously, pushing Abbey’s frizzing white locks away from her damp face. “She heard us all yelling at each other last night and I told her what happened. She said I was overreacting, putting down Jackson like I did, and I needed to apologize. Which I _tried_ to just now, but he won’t let me.”

“Give him some time, he’s stressed and angry, mostly at himself,” Clawdeen said, patting Heath’s arm sympathetically. “And he’s scared. He’s really scared for her.”

“I am too, Clawdeen,” Heath insisted, and he was. Contrary to popular belief about his intelligence level, he actually knew quite a bit about the system of electrical flow in a construct like Frankie and her parents. The battery was basically their life force, and failing to maintain a certain amount of voltage in their systems could mean some drastic consequences. If Abbey’s situation was potentially fatal, then Frankie’s was downright dire.

“Did you tell--?”

“No,” Heath shook his head. “She doesn’t know about Frankie yet.” Silence for a few more minutes passed between them, their gazes rotating between Clawd, who was pacing, and Jackson, who refused to take his eyes off of Frankie for a moment.

“I need to go take a walk,” Clawdeen said, looking out at the setting sun before she got her feet. “You guys stay here and look after them.”

“Hey wait, where you walking to?” Heath called after her as she disappeared into the clustered greenery.

“Come to think of it, I’m gonna go too,” Clawd said in equal haste, getting up to follow her away from the canopy.

“What’s the deal?!” Heath exclaimed as the siblings took off without another word, spreading his arms apart in expressive confusion. “Where are they going?” Jackson pretended to not have heard him, covering Frankie with some palm leaves as the air grew colder. Heath rolled his eyes and threw his hands up exasperatedly, “Fine, _I’ll_ go check!” He ignored Jackson in return as he brushed past him and followed the Wolfs back down the island in the direction of their bonfire. As their voices grew louder, Heath ducked behind a palm tree with a particularly thick trunk as soon as he was close enough to make out what they were saying.

“Clawdeen I get it, I know how you feel.”

“No, you don’t.” The female werewolf’s voice was choked with tears, cracking with a panicked desperation.

“Yes I do! I’m just as worried as you are and we’re both doing the best we can here.”

“Until what, Clawd? What’s the endgame? Are we really stuck here forever?"

“I...don’t know.” It was the first time Heath heard Clawd sound so vulnerable, so unlike the commanding pack leader he had been for the past four days.

“It was bad enough when it was just Abbey, and now--” She stopped, breathing hard as violent bawling threatened to overtake her speech.

“Clawdeen, you gotta stop this,” came Clawd’s calming tone. “Whatever you think this is, karma or something, it’s not.”

“Then why did this happen the morning after I yelled at her and hurt her, all because she told the truth and I wasn’t willing to face it?”

“You know why it happened, Jackson told us. Her charge couldn’t hold out anymore. That’s the only explanation Clawdeen, it has _nothing_ to do with what you said to her.”

“Clawd, the last thing I said to her was I hoped she drowned or short circuited!” Clawdeen said hoarsely. “Th-this is even worse.”

“It’s not your fault,” Clawd said slowly as if trying to engrave the words into her skull. “Not Frankie, not Abbey, not being unable to get us out of here, the only thing you could possibly blame yourself for is rolling over and playing dead. And you haven’t, you’ve been fighting this long--”

“And it’s not enough!” Clawdeen shouted, making Heath jump backward a bit. “Look around you, Clawd! We’re finished! Done for! Unless by some miracle someone finds us out here, that’s it for us! We failed!”

“We haven’t failed!” Clawd yelled back. “Last time I checked, all of us are still standing. That's a success in my book!”

“Barely! You call two of my beast friends hanging on by a thread a _success?!_ ” Her eyes were beginning to glow dangerously yellow gold and Heath let out a shaky breath. _Is it? Nah, it can’t be._

“We need to move further away, c’mon,” Clawd said urgently.

“I’m not done with you yet!” Clawdeen snarled as her brother grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her over his shoulders. “Clawd, let go of me now!”

“We need to get away from them, it’s too dangerous!” Clawd ran further towards the coast with his sister flung over his shoulder, but Heath didn’t dare follow them. Not after he noticed Clawdeen’s eyes, not after he heard their voices evolve into growls and howls, and definitely not after he glanced up at the navy blue sky. Just when he thought things couldn’t get much worse, they clearly had as Heath saw the night sky illuminated by a full moon.

 

~

She felt like she was trapped underwater as clouded shapes swam in front of her vision, a soothing dim light cutting through the darkness. The wind blew cold against her skin as she inhaled it like the first breath of life. _Nighttime,_ Abbey thought with a smile as her eyes opened slowly, revealing that the dim light was in fact the brightness of a full moon. _Full moon?_ She lifted her head and looked around. Clawd and Clawdeen were nowhere in sight, which was probably for the best. She discovered her location had changed yet again and wished they did more consulting with her before they up and moved her places. But since her condition left her largely nocturnal, it was difficult to do so.

Rolling her head to the side, she saw Heath and Jackson sitting quietly not looking at each other, and Frankie lying under the canopy appearing to be asleep. Judging by the tension in the air that could be cut with an icicle, Abbey wagered that Heath had not made peace with his cousin yet. She considered grabbing the nearest rock and hurling it at Heath’s head shouting _“You say you sorry, he say he sorry, okay you done!”_ It wasn’t that hard. Why did unlife seem so much more complicated away from her village? But as she took a closer look, both boys had their heads bowed, picking at the ground idly. They looked almost...sad?

“So how long do you think it’ll be ‘til they get back?” she heard Heath ask the still air. Jackson took a deep breath before he responded.

“Whenever the full moon sets, I guess. I’m a little fuzzy on how the cycle works.”

“Well I guess you can’t know everything, huh?” Pause. “Heh, ‘fuzzy’, get it? ‘Cause-’cause they’re werewolves?” Jackson stayed quiet. “Just tryin’ to lighten the mood a little.”

“I get it,” Abbey decided to break her own silence, and Heath's face lit up as he glanced over at her.

“Hey, look who’s up.” She let him peck her on the lips, knowing all the trouble and apprehension she was putting him through deserved to be rewarded when she was awake. “Now I don’t have to keep trying to talk to Jackson all night.”

“Good, everyone wins,” Jackson grumbled, bringing his knees to his chest as he rested his head against them exhaustedly. “Abbey’s awake so you don’t have to talk to the ‘waste of space’ anymore.”

“Jackson,” Heath began, pulling away from Abbey and sitting up to face his cousin, “I’m sorry. You’re not a waste of space. To your credit, we probably would’ve all died from those poisonous berries if you hadn’t told us. And...you’re family and I should’ve stuck with you. I was just really upset that I couldn’t do anything to help Abbey and I said some stuff I didn’t mean.” He laced his fingers through hers, and the yeti girl held onto his hand reassuringly.

“Well, I couldn’t say this last night,” Jackson said, making eye contact with Heath for the first time. “But now I think I can safely say I know how you feel.”

“What he mean?” Abbey asked, trying to rise as Heath helped her sit up. He gazed at her, then at Frankie lying beside Jackson, then back to her. “Heath, please to tell me what is wrong.”

“It’s Frankie,” Heath said, swallowing hard as he secured his arm around her waist. “That’s why Jackson knows how I feel.”

“She is asleep,” Abbey pointed to Frankie’s relaxed form, her hands resting on her stomach as her chest rose and fell slightly.

“She’s not asleep,” Jackson said in a constricted voice, fisting his hands in what looked like frustration. “I mean it looks like it and she kinda is, but it’s not that.”

“Her battery’s dying, Abbey,” Heath finally said, hanging his head. “And she’s had no way to recharge. She hasn’t woken up in like twelve hours. And if she doesn’t get any voltage in her system soon then…”

“Then what?” Abbey asked, feeling cold for the first time in ages that had nothing to do with the weather.

“Then she won’t ever wake up again,” Jackson finished soberly before hiding his face in his arms. Abbey suddenly felt like the ground had given out underneath her and she actually grabbed Heath’s shoulder for support.

“Never?” She looked to Heath for confirmation, whose grip around her grew tighter.

“It’s likely,” he said hushedly. Abbey simply stared dumbstruck over at Frankie’s still form, her eyes growing wet from emotion as her vision blurred.

“No,” she said, clutching at the front of Heath’s shirt. “No, she cannot. Not Frankie.” Heath said nothing but pulled her into a hug as Abbey unleashed her sorrow. The tears didn’t freeze on her cheeks as they usually did but fell thick and fast to the ground, which should have alarmed her about her still heightened body temperature. But right now, all Abbey could think about was how close she was with Frankie and imagining her never waking up again was just too much for the typically strong yeti.

“Hey c’mon,” Heath said softly, brushing at her cheeks lightly with his fingertips. “You need to save your strength.” Abbey nodded in agreement as she began to wipe her eyes dry, just as a faint flash of light caught her attention.

“What was that?” Heath asked, staring around before he recognized the source. Frankie’s neck bolts, letting out tiny little sparks in the darkness.

“Frankie?!” Jackson flew over to her, pulling her into his lap. “Why is she sparking like this? She’s gonna waste whatever energy she has left!”

“I dunno, she still won’t wake up,” Heath observed her closed eyes and motionless facial features.

“Perhaps she dreaming,” Abbey suggested. “You say she sleeping yet not sleeping, yes? Maybe she having bad dreams she cannot wake up from.”

“It’s okay,” Jackson whispered to Frankie, cradling her close and speaking as if she could hear him. “It’s alright Frankie, I’m right here.” He continuously stroked her face and hair until the sparking subsided at last, plunging them all back into near darkness.

“Way to go bro, you reached her,” Heath nodded approvingly at his cousin, who actually gave him a slight smile back. “Bad news is that sparking definitely cut her time down.”

“Maybe...maybe another storm might roll in and--!” Jackson looked up to the sky hopefully, only to see a million stars dotting the sky around the full moon. Nothing but clarity for miles as far as they could see.

“I’m sorry, Jackson,” Heath said, involuntarily holding Abbey even closer to him. “I’m really sorry.” Jackson’s face twisted into devastation as all the hope left him as quickly as it came. Even if another storm happened to roll in sometime the next day, she’d most likely be out of time by then.

“Frankie,” he choked out, letting the tears fall unashamedly. “Frankie you have to stay with me. You can’t leave me, please. You have no idea how much I…” He trailed off, rubbing at his eyes behind his glasses. “I know what you were trying to say earlier and…” He brushed his thumb gently along the stitched scar on her right cheek. “I do, too.”

Heath sniffled as he looked down at Abbey, both of them having listened in beside them. “You get all that?” he asked, jerking his head towards Jackson.

“Yes,” Abbey said, kissing his warm cheek lingeringly. “You not have to say any more.” She felt herself falling back into the abyss of unconsciousness, the familiarity of her surroundings getting further and further away from her, unable to even tell how much time had passed. It was only when a loud, shrill, piercing scream shot through the air that Abbey remembered fleetingly where she was, who she was with, and the female werewolf that the scream belonged to.

 

~

“I admire how you basically threatened to sic your parents on them if the coast guard didn’t relinquish our boat to us,” Cleo nodded at Lagoona as they stood atop the deck of Deuce’s boat very early the next morning. “Threats are always effective, I should know. It’s the Nefera way.”

“I didn’t want to, but they didn’t leave me much other choice,” Lagoona mumbled, staring out at the water. Now that she was actually out on it, she felt immensely grateful that she hadn’t needed to swim it alone. Her limbs were strong from her intense athleticism, but it wouldn’t have been nearly enough to swim the twenty miles needed to reach the island.

“How much farther, Ghoulia?” Draculaura called up to the helm where the zombie sat beside Deuce to tell him where to steer. After a quick look at her laptop, Ghoulia held up five fingers. “Five more miles!” Draculaura announced, clapping excitedly.

“It’s so good to see you smiling again, love,” Lagoona patted the vampire on the shoulder.

“Clawd is alive and well, why wouldn’t I smile?!”

“Yeah, _Clawd_ is alive,” came Operetta from back farther, where she stood leaning against the rail. “How do we know the others are, too? We could get there and find out Clawd is the only one who survived.”

“You quit talking like that,” Lagoona scolded her.

“I’m just thinkin’ realistically,” Operetta defended with a hard glare. “No use gettin’ everyone’s hopes up.”

“It’s true, I didn’t even think about that,” Draculaura’s smile vanished from her face.

“Now don’t you worry,” Lagoona said, giving her a one arm squeeze. “My parents saw Clawd running, so where would he have been running to if it wasn’t to meet someone?”

“I swear on my Daddy’s tomb that they are all together,” Cleo said conclusively.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Operetta smirked at her, earning a sneer from Cleo. Only then did they notice that the wind had stopped rushing through their hair, the sails relaxed in the breeze.

“Deuce?” Lagoona called to the helm, “Why’d you stop?”

“‘Cause we’re here,” the gorgon said simply, pointing out to the empty horizon. “Three miles in front of where the island is, according to Ghoulia’s satellites.”

“So now we just...wait?”

“Yep!” Draculaura said cheerfully, sitting down on a crate and getting comfortable as Operetta groaned in exasperation.

“This is insane!” she cried out. “Sure we might’ve found it, but who knows how long we could be sittin’ here! It could be days, weeks, months, y--” She gasped suddenly as she watched the air on the horizon begin to ripple like a mirage, the water around it suddenly disturbed.

“Everyone hang on!” Deuce shouted down to the ghouls as the waves spread out towards them and rocked their boat, enough to spill water over the edge but not severe enough to topple them.

“That must be it!” Cleo shouted, just before a wave splashed over her, and she came up spitting a mouthful of seawater out disgustedly. “Eww, gross! From now on, I stay at the helm!” The sun’s rays painted the sky pink and orange as the waves began to wither and die, the mirage slowly and more surely beginning to take shape. The ghouls all stood eagerly and hung onto each other as a giant landmass of sand, rocks, and towering palm trees materialized through the rippling air. Just as the article from _Divinity_ had said, a deserted island had appeared out of thin air at complete random.

“You were saying?” Deuce said smugly to Operetta, who still hadn’t picked her jaw up off the floor.

 


	6. Chapter 6

“What was that?” Heath asked, standing suddenly once he heard the scream coming from what must have been quite a few miles away.

“Clawdeen.” Jackson whipped his glasses off and hastily wiped his face, scanning the trees for any sign of her direction. “Something must’ve happened, it’s post full moon.” Both boys looked up to see faint sun rays through the darkened clouds. With great care, Jackson slid Frankie off of his lap and back onto the leaf bed the Wolf siblings had made before getting quickly to his feet. “Can you watch her for me?”

“Yeah sure,” Heath nodded, sitting back down between Frankie’s unmoving form and Abbey, who had slipped back into unawareness.

“Whatever you do, make sure she doesn’t spark,” Jackson warned him. “I’ll go find Clawd and Clawdeen.” Sprinting through the greenery, Jackson made his way back in the direction of the bonfire he had stormed away from only two nights ago. Had it really been only two nights since he and Frankie had renounced the pack leaders’ help and struck out on their own? It felt longer, much longer since Frankie had collapsed from her dwindling battery’s charge. Last night had been the longest of his life, and thanks to sharing said life with Holt, he had never known very many nights to begin with. It was awful enough seeing Frankie looking as helpless as she did, but watching energy leak out of her in sparks of electricity and being unable to do anything about it was unbearable. Thankfully, Heath hadn’t said anything about him crying and left him alone. Jackson got the impression that Heath felt like letting down his tough male defenses and shedding some tears over Abbey too, and he didn’t blame him.

It was in realizing that they were in nearly the exact same situation that allowed Jackson to forgive his cousin. Both of them were just terrified for the fates of the most important ghouls in their lives. Jackson wasn’t an idiot, he knew Heath cared for Abbey just as much as the half normie himself did for Frankie, and was often jealous of how daring and forward Heath was when it came to charming a ghoul’s heart. The farthest he and Frankie had gotten was holding hands, and even that still made him blush and Frankie spark. And if they weren’t rescued from this deserted island soon, it would be the farthest he and Frankie would _ever_ get. The slight rise and fall of her chest as she breathed in a deep sleep was the only reassurance that Jackson hadn’t lost her. Yet.

He slowed to a brisk walk as the shore and the bonfire came into view, and he finally saw them huddled in the sand. Clawd was breathing heavily, snarls and wolf whimpers escaping him as he clutched his defined tricep in pain. Clawdeen was standing over him, her hands cupped over her mouth as she tried to move closer to her brother, only to have him growl wordlessly at her causing her to jump back from him.

“Clawdeen, we heard you back at the camp,” Jackson skittered around the still half-savage Clawd as he went up to Clawdeen. “What happened?”

“I didn’t mean to, Jackson. I swear I didn’t know I’d done it until--” She pointed with a shaking hand down at where Clawd had his hand pressed against his arm. It was dripping with copious amounts of blood, and while Jackson was alarmed at how hurt he was, he was also incredibly thankful they did not have a vampire in their midst.

“Clawdeen, you didn’t,” he turned to her in shock. “There’s no way that was…”

“It _was_ me!” Clawdeen burst out, tears streaming down her face. “I attacked him, I attacked my own brother! We were fighting just before we transformed, and if either of us is in a bad temper at that point then--” She gulped, trying to speak as fluently as she could without stopping to catch her breath. “My family usually splits up and hides in the woods behind our house during the full moon. It’s an area we’re all familiar with so we can always find our way back home once it passes, plus by splitting up we can avoid confrontation that could lead to something...nasty.” She brushed at her eyes as Jackson laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Clawd made us stay together since the island’s so strange to us, which might’ve been okay if we weren’t arguing. He didn’t deserve what I wound up doing to him! He was just trying to tell me that I shouldn’t be beating myself up over what happened to Frankie!”

Jackson was puzzled by that for a minute, until he remembered Clawdeen calling Frankie some lousy thrown together monster, and it clicked that Clawdeen must have thought Frankie’s sudden deteriorating condition was some kind of punishment for that. Shaking his head, his arm moved around her shoulders and rested there firmly. “He’s right, you shouldn’t be beating yourself up.”

“Claw...deen?” Clawd was starting to come to, the gold yellow disappearing from him eyes, normal speech replacing the growls. He glanced from her down to his arm, then back up to her with wide disbelieving eyes.

“I’m sorry!” Clawdeen leaned against Jackson’s shoulder. “I don’t know what to say except I’m really sorry, Clawd.”

“It’s okay, Clawdeen,” Jackson said softly. “Believe me, I know how this feels.”

“No you don’t!” The female werewolf ripped herself away from him, her lips curled dangerously. “You just shut up. You have no idea what it feels like to do something awful and not know you did it until it’s too late and having no memory of it ever happening!”

“Really?!” Jackson shot back, feeling personally offended as he stepped towards her. “You really think _I_ wouldn’t have any idea how that feels?!” Clawdeen opened her mouth to respond, then realization came into her eyes and she closed it again. “Yeah, I may not turn into a wolf but I still get it. My condition’s left me alone in dark alleys, locked up in jail cells, beaten up and who knows what other felonies I’m not aware of. It’s more complicated than you know, and it’s because of it I botched a relationship with the only ghoul I’ve ever loved.”

“Jackson I’m sorry, I forgot,” Clawdeen said sincerely. “I can’t _believe_ I forgot. I don’t know what’s come over me.” She looked back over at Clawd, who was examining his arm gingerly. “Aw Clawd…” She knelt beside him, her eyes darting around for something to wrap his arm with, finally landing on the remains of her purple halter top. Tearing it from her torso, she exposed her lavender bathing suit underneath as she wrapped the shredded top around Clawd’s wound. Jackson simply stood watching dazedly, but less because Clawdeen had taken her top off and more because he had just associated the L-word with Frankie. Yet finally voicing that he loved her also left a real feeling of elation in his chest.

“Hey bro, eyes off my sister,” Clawd warned him with a smirk as Clawdeen tightened the wrapping around his bleeding tricep.

“No worries bro, I’m taken.” That felt great to say out loud, too.

“Are you sure it’s just your arm?” Clawdeen asked cautiously.

“Yeah I’m sure,” Clawd moved his bandaged arm around slowly. “I’ll be fine, that should help avoid any infection for awhile.”

“Good, ‘cause I really liked that shirt,” Clawdeen mumbled, crossing her arms. “So it better be going to a useful cause.”

 _“Jackson!”_ came Heath’s voice-cracked holler from further inland. _“Jackson, where are you?!”_

“Good thing my legs still work,” Clawd said before the three of them ran back into the trees, closer to their new canopy. Heath came dashing into view and dug his sandaled heel into the dirt before he ran smack into Clawd.

“What happened to you?!” Heath cried out, indicating the alpha wolf’s injury.

“Long story, point is I’m fine,” Clawd waved off. “Now what’s wrong with you?”

“Is it Abbey?” Clawdeen asked fearfully and Jackson’s heart stopped, thinking the yeti might have hung on as long as she could, the heat having done her in for good.

“No, _Frankie._ ” Now Jackson’s heart plummeted to his stomach. "She’s not breathing. At all. I tried everything that didn’t involve messing with her voltage but--!” No one waited for him to finish as they all made a mad dash for the canopy.

“Frankie!” Clawdeen screamed, sliding down to her knees beside her beast friend once they reached their destination.

“She can’t hear you, or any of us,” Jackson said in a hollow voice, clutching Frankie’s shoulders as he stared into her blank expression, eyes closed and devoid of movement. “It happened. She’s comatose.”

“Clawd,” Heath motioned for him to come over to where Abbey was, “Look at this.” He held up the necklace from around Abbey’s neck. The broken center gem had gone from a smoldering grey to coal black.

“Oh man, that can’t be good,” Clawd shook his head.

“What do I do?!” Heath shouted, glancing down at Abbey who began breathing from her mouth in short gasps like a fish out of water.

“I don’t know, Heath,” Clawd gripped his shoulder hard. “I think she’s beyond our help.” He looked back over at Frankie, “They both are.”

“Abbey, Abbey stop breathing like that, you’re freaking me out!” Heath scolded as if she could hear him, pulling her head and torso against his chest to keep her close.

“Clawdeen, we need to find some way to cool Abbey off, stat!” Clawd was met with silence, and he turned to look at his sister, gaping at something just over his shoulder. “Clawdeen, what?!”

“Look.” She pointed slowly with her arm. “Clawd, please tell me I’m not seeing things.” As the alpha wolf turned himself around to look out at the water past the sanded shores, he was stunned to the point of lightheadedness. “Is that... _a boat?_ ”

“Two of them,” Clawd said, getting up from the ground dazedly, seeing that one of the shapes was larger, the other small. “And that’s not just any sailboat.”

“It’s Deuce’s!” Heath shouted in complete disbelief. “I remember, it looked just like ours!”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jackson said sharply, and all three turned to gap in his direction. “It won’t stop for us. We’re like invisible or something! Frankie and I tried to flag down some helicopter yesterday morning and it never saw us! There’s no way those boats are gonna--” His jaw fell further the longer he stared, “--sail right toward us!”

There was no questioning, no thinking it over, it was as if animal instinct had overtaken them all. Jetting down towards the coast, the four of them screamed and jumped up and down, waving the two boats in. They saw Deuce waving back wildly from the helm of the smaller sailboat, squeals of celebration carrying over from the rest of the ghouls on board, and those that had been shipwrecked for so long knew then that they weren’t dreaming. As Clawdeen and Heath flung their arms around each other while Clawd and Jackson yelled and howled their jubilation, they knew that the miracle they so desperately needed had arrived at last. And not a moment too soon.

 

~

Draculaura couldn’t remember the last time she had smiled this much, experienced such joy that made her laugh and cry at once as she did when Deuce docked the boat on the shore of the vanishing island. Scurrying from the boat deck down to the sand, she ran straight for Clawdeen, who was nearest, and hugged her harder than she ever had before.

“I can’t believe you found us!” Clawdeen exclaimed, her voice breaking with emotion as she hugged her vampire beastie just as tightly.

“I can’t believe you’re safe!” Draculaura choked out. Then she looked over Clawdeen’s shoulder and her heart soared as Clawd rushed toward her. “You’re _all_ safe!” She pulled back from Clawdeen and the female wolf stepped aside so Draculaura could leap into Clawd’s waiting arms.

“Draculaura,” Clawd managed to breathe out through their lengthy reunion, a mess of tears and kisses as he spun her around. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”

“I was so scared for you,” she blubbered into his shoulder, clutching him like a lifeline for what felt like ages. That is until a certain stench caught her nose, a stench she was not fond of in the slightest. “Clawd!” she pulled back suddenly, glancing down until she located his clumsily wrapped arm. “You’re covered in bl-bl-”

“I’m sorry, I forgot!” He hastily set her down on the ground and helped the faint vegetarian vampire put her head between her knees as more of the party began to descend to the shore.

“Dudes!” Deuce launched himself into a tackling bro hug with Heath and Jackson, all three of them slapping each other on the back. “We've been going nuts without you guys.”

“Do you have any idea how worried I was?!” Cleo stumbled through the sand to hug both of the Wolf siblings. Ghoulia groaned at her intently, to which the princess waved her hand, “Oh please Ghoulia, _none_ of you were more worried than I was.”

“Good to know some things'll never change,” Clawdeen said to Operetta under her breath, who laughed as they pulled each other into a hug.

“Operetta and I thought we were gonna have to take over SKRM coaching next scaremester,” Lagoona giggled through tears as she embraced Clawd. “I’m so sorry, Clawd, I should’ve been able to keep us all from getting lost in the storm.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” the alpha wolf said as he pulled back to look at her. “You’re good in the water Lagoona, but nobody’s good enough to tackle a hurricane alone. It’s over now.”

“Yeah,” Lagoona sighed deeply, as if a large weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “Yeah it is.”

“So where’s Abbey and Frankie?” Operetta looked around at the deserted party. “We need to get ya’ll back to our suites so you can clean yourselves up, call your folks--”

“Come through here, quick,” Clawdeen motioned for everyone to follow her, who responded immediately to her sudden urgency. Luckily with the ten of them working together, it took almost no time at all to get Frankie and Abbey onto the larger boat sent over by Lagoona’s parents and start heading back to the Scaribbean.

“Mum and Dad said there should be a freezer down below,” Lagoona said to Heath and Deuce, who were supporting Abbey as they headed down the steps below deck. “Set her in there and turn the thermostat down as low as you can.”

“Got it!” Heath called as he wrenched the door open, his face met with a cold blast of air as he and Deuce set Abbey down on the icy floor of the freezer.

“Everything good down here?” Draculaura called from the opening that led to the deck. Lagoona nodded satisfactorily before Draculaura motioned for her to come back up. “C’mon, Ghoulia and Jackson need help with Frankie.” She whirled around and ran across the deck with the sea monster at her heels.

“This is the only generator we’ve got,” Lagoona gestured to the large rectangular metal box just below the helm platform, beside which Jackson and Ghoulia had rested Frankie. “I hope it’s enough.”

“We’ll find out soon,” Jackson said, their eyes meeting anxiously just as Operetta returned from below carrying two thick red wires with metal pincers attached to the ends.

“These were the biggest ones I could find,” the phantom handed them off to Ghoulia, who nodded with a groan. She promptly clamped two of the jaws around Frankie’s neck bolts while Jackson grabbed the opposite ends and found an opening to attach them to some loosened wires.

“Now what?” Draculaura asked, fisting her hands to her chest in worry as she peered down at Frankie’s lifeless face.

“We have to give it a little time,” Jackson explained, settling himself beside Frankie. “She’s completely run down. I don’t even know if…”

“You don’t know if what?” Lagoona asked, exchanging a fearful glance with Draculaura as Jackson shook his head, unable to clarify. Tearing her gaze away, the vampire looked over at Clawd being properly wrapped by Cleo since due to her inability to even inhale the red stuff she had renounced, she couldn’t tend to her boyfriend herself. Deuce had emerged from the freezer below and headed over to where Cleo sat.

“He’s such a good wolf, Deuce,” Cleo cooed at Clawd as she wound the final layer around his arm. “He only whined a little bit.”

“Good to hear,” Deuce smiled, slapping the palm attached to Clawd’s good arm. “So uh…what do you think about this?” He unfurled his fisted fingers to reveal Abbey’s broken charm necklace, which Cleo took from him and turned over and over in her hands to examine. After a few silent moments, she finally nodded.

“It can be done,” she said, putting the necklace safely in the tight corner pocket of her skinny capris. “Good thing I don’t travel without some of Daddy’s artifacts. A freezing climate enchantment will take some time, but I can do it.”

“Solid,” Deuce kissed her quickly on the cheek before heading back down below. Heath was sitting in a folding chair against the locked door of the freezer, his knees jiggling nervously as he heard Deuce come down. “Good news, dude, Cleo’s got it covered!”

“Awesome!” Heath exhaled in relief, giving him a fist bump. “Tell her I owe her one _big_ time.”

“Don’t say that, she’ll take full advantage of a deal like that,” Deuce warned him with a laugh before ascending the stairs again. “Let me know if you guys need anything!” he called as he disappeared, leaving Heath alone with the loud whirring of the walk-in freezer as he rested his head in the heels of his palms. Whether it was due to the exhaustion of being constantly stressed and in motion for the past five days or the sudden onslaught of relief upon being found on the island, the fire elemental found himself drifting off as soon as he closed his eyes.

He awoke quite a while later to what sounded like banging, hard and metallic echoing through the interior of the boat. Jolting out of his power nap, Heath whipped his head around until he realized it was coming from the freezer. Knowing that this could only mean one thing, his heart leapt into his mouth as he jumped up, his fingers trembling as he unbolted the freezer door and flung it open. She was no longer lying on the floor where he left her, but standing before him on her own. She was no longer greyed with illness, but flushed with icy blue in her face and along her legs and arms. And her eyes no longer looked dull, clouded and not all there, but were clear violet, bright with wistful emotion, and focused solely on the monster who had unlocked the door.

“Hey…” It was all Heath could say before Abbey opened her arms and he rushed into them, letting the freezer door slam shut behind him. He didn’t even care if he had goofed up and the door had locked, his abnormally high body heat would let him survive. All he cared about was the ghoul he was holding as if his unlife depended on it, safe and healthy at last. And it was their uninterrupted privacy that allowed Heath to sniffle lightly into Abbey’s shoulder while she held him close.

“Is now second time you save me,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” Heath replied, straightening himself up to gaze into her eyes. She had tears frozen to the corners of her eyes just like he did, her face breaking into the largest smile he had ever seen her wear.

“In my village, that meaning you want to...how you say…‘go steady’?”

“How’d you figure that one out?” he chuckled warmly before grabbing her around the waist and pulling her down into a low dip. Even though they were together in an ice box turned down well below freezing temperature, neither of them had ever felt more warm than when their lips met in a long and lingering kiss.

Draculaura shook her head with a smile from the top of the stairs leading below deck. Had Heath really just locked himself and Abbey in the freezer? Thinking they would probably want some alone time, she resolved to free them later. Besides she needed some bit of happiness right now, what with the tense commotion by the generator. Making her way back under the helm, she slid to her knees beside Clawdeen, Cleo and Lagoona, who all had their eyes fixated on Frankie. She had been charging for nearly half an hour now, waves of electricity flowing through the wires from the generator and feeding into her neck bolts quite consistently. Which left the rest of them thoroughly bewildered as to why the stitched construct remained still as the grave.

“Shouldn’t something be happening by now?” Lagoona asked quietly. “Some sparks, a jolt through her body?”

“Shouldn’t she be waking up?” Cleo clarified at last, her hands fisted so hard on top of her knees that her knuckles were white. Ghoulia, who had remained between the generator and Frankie watching the progress intently, mumbled incoherently for several moments, a saddened look crossing her face.

“So the charge _is_ flowing through her system,” Deuce gathered from the zombie’s explanation, “but--”

“But it might not be reaching her brain properly,” Clawd finished, lowering his voice. “Something’s blocking it.”

Jackson stayed quiet for a long time, then reached down and pulled Frankie into his lap. Brushing her hair away from her closed eyes, his chest tightened painfully as the inevitable truth came crashing down on him. “It’s too late,” he revealed softly. “She’s already sunk into the coma. That’s what’s keeping her from waking.”

“Wait,” Cleo said in a deep biting tone. “Are you saying there’s nothing we can do for her?” Ghoulia nodded slowly and the princess let out some sort of cross between a gasp and a whimper.

“No!” Lagoona cried out, covering her face with her hands.

“This can’t be happenin’!” Operetta exclaimed, her lavender eyes glistening moistly. “We’re so close, we came _so close_ to gettin’ ya’ll home safe!” At that, Jackson lowered his head even further, tightening his lips into a thin line as his whole body began to shake. Clawd raised his head to the sky and howled mournfully as Deuce knelt down and rubbed Jackson’s back consolingly.

“This shouldn’t have happened to her,” Clawdeen’s breath hitched as her eyes filled up. “The worst part of all this is we might’ve been able to avoid it!”

“Oh Frankie!” Draculaura burst out, flinging herself forward and grasping Frankie’s cold hands tightly as she wept.

“Unacceptable!” Cleo shouted, mascara tracks streaking down her face. “She’s too young, she’s far too young! She’s too important to all of us! Frankie can’t just leave us like this, she _can’t--!_ ” Ghoulia had slowly made her way over to where her beast friend was and wrapped her arms around her as her shouts dissolved into tears. Clinging tightly to Ghoulia, Cleo was joined by Clawdeen, then Lagoona, Operetta and finally Draculaura, all of them clustered in a group embrace comforting one another at the loss of one of their closest ghoulfriends. Jackson had blocked out the rest of the world, the guys with their heads bowed silently and the ghouls crying together. Only his own heart beating in his ears registered as salty drops fell from his eyes onto Frankie’s face.

“I’m sorry, Frankie,” his voice choked up on suppressed sobs, hugging her against his chest and rocking her slightly. “I’m so sorry. I...I messed up again, and now I won’t get another chance.” He didn’t care who all was listening, any embarrassment was furthest from his mind. “I wanted to be yours, Frankie, and you to be mine. So badly. You’re beautiful and kind and stronger than I’ll ever be.” He lowered his voice to a whisper, bringing his face closer to hers. “And I love that...and everything else about you.” Lifting her head up slightly, Jackson closed the distance between their lips, giving her the sweetest, most tender, most meaningful kiss he could muster.

“Whoa!” Clawd exclaimed, he and Deuce skittering back as sparks began to fly hard and fast from Frankie, flashes of light spouting from her fingers and bolts. The ghouls had all looked up and gasped just as Jackson pulled back from Frankie sharply. She inhaled deeply as if her source of life had suddenly returned to her, and Jackson let out a cry of rapture as her eyes flew open wide.

“Where--wh--Jackson, what--?”

“Oh my ghoul, she’s okay!” Draculaura laughed as the others exclaimed happily behind her, collapsing in a group hug once again. “You did it, Jackson!”

“I’m-I’m not really sure what I did,” Jackson said breathlessly, Frankie’s eyes sparkling both blue and green up at him. “Frankie, Deuce and the others found us. We’re on a boat heading to the Scaribbean right now. No storms now, clear skies ahead.”

“I feel so light-headed,” Frankie said weakly, but as she sat up she allowed each of her ghoulfriends to embrace her tightly. Only Clawdeen hung back for a minute, shame still evident in her eyes until Frankie smiled in her direction, and she flung herself forward and captured her around the neck.

“I’m sorry,” Clawdeen said thickly as Frankie held her right back. “I felt awful as soon as I said it. I’ll understand if you never wanna speak to me again.”

“How could I do that?” Frankie shook her head, pulling back from Clawdeen while still gripping her shoulders firmly. “Besides I need _someone_ to help me shop for a new outfit after all of this.” Clawdeen snorted out a laugh before moving aside with the other ghouls, leaving Frankie alone with Jackson beside the generator.

“You’re, uh, still not charged all the way,” the half normie said awkwardly, jerking his head over to the generator. “Maybe I should just let you rest.”

“Hey wait,” Frankie reached up and pulled on the front of his T-shirt so he’d sit back down with her. “So...you kissed me?”

“I couldn’t help it,” Jackson confessed, thinking he’d _really_ blown it this time. “It looked like you were gone and we couldn’t bring you back and I just had to tell you even if you couldn’t hear me and...Frankie, I really do feel that way about you. But I’m sorry if it freaks you out or if you think that it’s too much for you right now.” Frankie didn’t say anything for a moment and Jackson took that as his cue to leave, until he felt two soft hands cup his face and pull him back down, just a split second before her lips pressed softly against his.

“It doesn’t freak me out,” Frankie said once she pulled back from sharing their second, slightly shorter kiss. “At all.” Out the corner of her eye, she saw Operetta and Clawdeen glancing at her wearing identical smirks, eyebrows wagging suggestively. _“Shut up,”_ Frankie mouthed over at them as Jackson drew her closer, letting his arms rest comfortably around her in a strong embrace.

 

~

“Mom I--Mom, calm down, we’re fine,” Clawd tried to get a word in edgewise, he and Clawdeen gathered around Ghoulia’s laptop screen talking to their parents via webcam. The castaways had made it back to the hotel suites, where the others who had rescued them were passing around iCoffins and computers to get in touch with their parents on pins and needles with worry back home in Salem. Needless to say everyone, monster parents and children alike, were overwhelmed with emotional relief. “It was just a deserted island.”

“Though seriously, of all the islands we could’ve landed on, it had to be the one that vanishes off the map?” Clawdeen raised her eyebrows in disbelief at Ghoulia, who shrugged in puzzlement.

“I know, I know, I just--” Harriet Wolf tried to speak, but her voice kept getting caught in her throat, so her husband took over.

“Is there anything you kids need?” Clawrk asked, keeping a much calmer demeanor about him. “Mom and I can send some stuff down there for you.”

“Nah Dad, we’re good,” Clawdeen shook her head, raising voice to be heard over her mother’s whimpers. “Cleo’s pretty much got everything we’ll need here.”

“Good good, I’m proud of you two for handling things so well,” Clawrk said with a smile, making both siblings flush with pride. “And both of you feel alright? Neither of you are sick?”

“Just my poor baby boy got hurt during the full moon last night!” Harriet butt in.

“Mom it’s okay, it’ll heal in like a day,” Clawd rolled his eyes, his cheeks reddening through his fur in embarrassment, eyeing Draculaura who was sitting on the arm of the sofa beside him.

“How did you hurt yourself anyway?” Draculaura asked, gently stroking his clean bandage.

“Must’ve snagged it real good on a tree branch or a bush.” He caught his sister's glance out the corner of his eye, who mouthed a slight _“thank you”_ when no one else was looking. Next to them in a lounge recliner, Abbey was on Cleo’s phone while sitting in Heath’s lap, speaking in loud rapid Yetish to her parents in the northern mountains.

“Tell them about the cool new charm Cleo made you,” Heath said, while Abbey nodded and translated with slight annoyance. “And how I took care of you on the island. And how we kissed in a freezer and got locked in--”

“Am not telling them that part,” Abbey slipped back into English, moving her mouth away from the phone. “Dad rip you limb from limb and leave you spicy hot feast for yaks if I do.” Heath kept his mouth shut from then on, but kept sneaking kisses at Abbey’s neck, until she finally got him to stop by freezing his entire face.

“She’s back, baby!” he exclaimed through the ice as if speaking with gritted teeth. Behind them in the bar stools at the long kitchenette counter, Frankie was sobbing over Draculaura’s phone to her parents, on speaker for Jackson sitting beside her.

“ _Mein liebes Kind_ , my precious little girl!” Viveka Stein choked out as Frankie hiccuped through joyful tears. “We were afraid we’d never hear your voice again!”

“Have you checked your levels?” Viktor said rather sternly, even though Frankie knew he was just concerned for her. “Your charge? Your voltage? You were able to regain it all?”

“Yeah Dad, everything worked out great, just when I was worried it wasn’t going to.” Frankie wiped her eyes with a balled-up tissue as she leaned closer into Jackson’s shoulder. He kept his arm around her tightly as if, after such a close call, he never wanted to let her go again. “In fact, I think it’s even _better_ than great!”

“It’s a miracle you’re alive, _schätzchen._ Your mother and I cannot wait to hold you when you get home. And Jackson,” Viktor’s voice lowered to a threatening rumble. “I trust you behaved yourself with my daughter over the past few days.”

“I was too busy trying to keep her alive, Dr. Stein,” Jackson responded smoothly without missing a beat. Frankie gaped at him and nodded satisfactorily as if to say _“Smooth move.”_

Meanwhile, Cleo reclined back in a lawn chair out on the patio watching the scene through the sliding door window. Holding up her now empty glass of lemonade, she didn’t even need to look up to know who was refilling it.

“I still can’t believe how proud I am of you,” Deuce said as he knelt next to her at the arm of her chair, laying a hand on hers.

“How, after all this time, can you still be so surprised at my accomplishments?” Cleo laughed lightly, sipping from her glass. “I was one of the heirs of the most magnificent empire of the B.C. era. I was born to lead.”

“Yeah, but you usually lead stuff like Fearleading or parties or organizing a shopping trip,” Deuce went on. “This was totally different, it was...you know, like a real crisis. Six of our friends could’ve died. Two of them almost did! But in the end, we all worked together to pull through. And a big part of it was you keeping your cool, even when the rest of us fell apart. That’s what was most important.”

“Someone has to do it, Deucey,” Cleo laced her fingers through his as she craned her neck back to let the sun’s rays hit her face. “Someone always has to take charge. And it will always be me, as it should be.”

“You always bring out the best in your friends,” Deuce said softly as he leaned over, capturing her around the waist as he brought his lips to hers. “Even when you’re not always at your best.”

“Like a true queen should,” Cleo breathed back before pulling his head down in another display of passion.

 

~

“Anyone else feelin’ as awkward as I am?” Operetta broke the silence around the table, looking around at Lagoona, Clawdeen and Ghoulia. The four of them sat together in a booth later that night at a lively restaurant filled with music,  a dance floor, and a large buffet at the center where monster chefs made the food from scratch. Despite this slight awkwardness, the ghouls were having the time of their lives without any stress or worry to weigh them down.

“You mean feeling like four third wheels on a quadruple date?” Clawdeen said rather boredly with her chin resting in her clawed hand as she glance around. At four smaller booths closer to the dance floor, the four couples were seated within earshot, the castaways dressed in brand new outfits fresh from a long afternoon of scouring every clothing store in the Scaribbean. “Are they ever gonna come over here and talk to _us?_ Seriously, how long can two people stare at each other with stupid smiles on their faces?”

Lagoona had to laugh, Ghoulia joining in with a fluttery moan. “Can ya blame them, mate? Draculaura and Clawd haven’t seen each other for days, Abbey and Frankie were almost lost forever, and Cleo and Deuce are...well, Cleo and Deuce. You two will understand someday when you’re older.”

“I am older and I don’t think I’ll ever get it,” Operetta rolled her eyes while Clawdeen nodded in agreement. Then their heads perked up as a particularly loud voice floated over from Frankie’s booth.

“So lemme get this straight. Your boat crashed in a storm, you were stranded on a disappearing island for almost five days, you were on the down low ‘cause you couldn’t charge yourself before the rest of them came to rescue you, _and I missed it all?!_ ” Holt Hyde did not appear to be taking his extended absence very well, a fact Frankie could plainly see as she watched him rant with a very sheepishly ashamed look on her face.

“Holt I’m sorry, but you know there’s no music out in the middle of nowhere,” she tried to apologize as best she could. Holt sulked backward in his cushioned seat, his hands crossed over his chest as his mouth settled into a pout.

“Sometimes not being the dominant persona really _sucks._ ” The blue skinned, flaming orange haired DJ looked up to see Frankie grinning as she drummed her freshly painted fingernails against the table top. “What?” he asked slyly when he realized she was plainly wearing a _“I know something you don’t know”_ expression.

“So I guess now wouldn’t be the best time to bring up that I’ve decided we should move past ‘trial dating’?”

“ _Now_ you have my attention, Frankie Fine!” the DJ sat up, his orange-red eyes lighting up with delight. “Guess that normie must be smoother than I thought, huh?”

“I think he’s got you to thank for that,” Frankie played coyly, leaning closer across the table as a large grin broke across Holt’s face.

“Fair enough, no one’s a better flirt than the Holt-ster.” He snapped his fingers at a passing waiter, “Hey dude! Get the lady a water, she’s been stranded on an island for a week!”

“ _Holt,_ ” Frankie said flusteredly as the waiter hurried to refill her glass.

“I’m just making sure my ghoul is comfortable. And hey.” Frankie watched his face become quite serious as he reached across the table and slid his blue hand under her green one. “I really am glad you’re okay,” he finished as he brought her hand to his lips.

“Thanks to you I am." Frankie closed her fingers around his hand as she leaned over the table to kiss his cheek.

“Look at those two,” Draculaura smiled wistfully over at Frankie and Holt from the booth over Clawd’s shoulder. “That was _us_ way back in the day.”

“We’ve only been dating for a year and a half,” Clawd pointed out, wiping the dribble of steak sauce and juice from his chin before it made his girlfriend feel disgusted. He tried his absolute hardest not to look like a pig in front of her, but tearing into a nice rare steak was exactly what he needed after their little island adventure. Luckily, Draculaura seemed to be putting up with it pretty well for his sake. All that mattered now was that Clawd was back and safe with her, and if that was the case, he could have all the bloody meat he wanted.

“And for the past few days, I was afraid that was all we’d ever have.” Clawd glanced up from his plate to see the sadness glittering in her eyes.

“You were really worried about us, weren’t you?” Draculaura nodded tightly and he grabbed a couple of wet napkins to wipe the grease from his hands so he could hold hers.

“I’m 1600 years old, Clawd. I am no stranger to death even though I cheated it. And because of that, I bear the burden of having watched so many people I care for pass on over the centuries. But nothing, _nothing_ causes me worse heartbreak than seeing ones I have loved with all my heart die before their time is up.” Her gaze shifted over to the dance floor, where Cleo and Deuce twirled into each other skillfully while Holt and Frankie clumsily crashed into them, causing Cleo to scold them in outrage while the other three laughed. “I will have to say goodbye to almost everyone someday. Including you, Clawd. And I just couldn’t bear it if it came sooner than I expected.”

“Hey,” Clawd soothed, scooting around the cushioned booth seat to hold her tiny frame against his muscular one. “So you’re gonna outlive me. I think that’s something we’ve both got going in the backs of our minds. But I promise you, we got a long way to go until then. It’s gonna take more than some deserted island to finish me off for good.” He used his claw to tilt her chin up towards his face, “And what did I make you promise me when I _do_ have to go?”

“That I would let someone else love me the way you did,” she smiled as she let herself melt into him. And when he kissed her lips, fangs and all, Draculaura reminded herself to savor each and every one that they shared, for she’d never know how precious they were until she no longer had them.

“Aww c’mon!” Heath whined after Abbey gave him a flat out “ _No_ ” in response to Heath’s invitation to dance.

“Mother giving me strict orders not to be straining the body while I recover,” Abbey reminded him, popping a frozen shrimp into her mouth. “Besides, in mountains we only dance when on date.”

“But we _are_ on a date,” Heath said in confusion. “We’re at a nice restaurant.”

“With other friends,” Abbey added.

“Eating a nice dinner I’m paying for.”

“Cleo paying for.”

“Wearing that scorching new dress I got you.”

“I pay for dress, you just carry bag because you wanting to.”

“All while turning up the heat in a brand new relationship.”

“Just like Frankie and Holt.”

“Okay, I got nothin’,” Heath threw up his hands in defeat with a frown. “I guess it’s not a real date.” Abbey looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then took up her leftover side dish of fries. Shaking the bottle of tabasco sauce over the top, she smiled through her tusks as she slid the plate across the table to the fire elemental she finally felt she could call her own.

“May not be what I call ‘date.’ But...am still having good time with you either way.”

“So you ready to tell the ghouls about us?” Heath rubbed his thumb over her right hand knuckles as he played footsie with her under the table.

“I already tell Frankie,” Abbey stated bluntly. “Only matter of time before her loose lips be doing the, how you say, ‘blabbing’ for me.”

 _“Way to go, cuz!”_ came Holt’s shout to Heath from the dance floor where he was swaying with his arms around Frankie’s waist.

“Right back ‘atcha!” Heath shouted back, winking at him and Frankie as Abbey raised her eyebrows saying “See? What I tell you?”

From her spot on the dance floor where she swayed against the fiery-hot DJ with her chin resting on his shoulder, Frankie had a perfect view of the section of the restaurant where the rest of her friends were gathered. All of them still together, even after facing possibly the most horrifying challenge of their young unlives. With everything she had learned and grown to understand throughout her short time alive, she would have never guessed so much could happen and change in less than a week. For her, it had been frightening, stressful and exhausting, and she had run the entire gambit of the emotional spectrum, feeling things she never thought she was capable of feeling. And it felt _exhilarating._ Sure she hadn’t gotten a relaxing week at the Scaribbean Islands like she planned she would, but in a way their perilous trek on the deserted island was even more satisfying. Sure she could have done without sleeping in the dirt, the terrible argument with her friends and falling into a coma due to her draining charge. But how fulfilling could her unlife truly be if she only spent it day-to-day going to school and hanging out with her friends? There was so much more than that to experience, and Frankie needed to see it all, the good and the bad.

She hadn’t asked for it, but thanks to everything that had happened to them, how through it all she still had her friends--and perhaps having gained a little something more, too--Frankie finally felt like she was truly living.

 


End file.
